The Blood Slave
by Wylis
Summary: A chance encounter with a vampire leads Sookie into a dark world of danger and lust. A/U
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I'm trying something new, for me, with this new story. I absolutely adore all of the historical romances that other authors have come up with (fabulous stories like Maid of the Moor by Bathshebarocks, and Dead at Sea by Seastarr08- which you should check out if you haven't already) and wonderful lust filled romps (like Destined to be by Nachtperle) and so this is my attempt at combining the two. All our favorite vampires are still vampires and Sookie is still a telepath, but the rest is all alternate universe. And I did borrow the idea that Bill was turned before he returned home from the war as it happens in True Blood and not in the SVM novels because that worked better for the story, I hope you enjoy!_

_Just a warning: the whole story will be extremely M rated for lots of very adult sexual content_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Chapter One: Sookie's POV

New Orleans 1867

When I come too I have no idea where I am or how long I've been out. My head hurts badly and I can feel the bruise on the right side of my forehead has swelled into a large bump. Wherever I am it's dark and I can't see even an inch in front of my face. I'm more scared now than I have ever been in my entire life. More scared than I was when Jason went away to war, more scared than I was when the Union soilders occupied Mrs. Compton's house across the cemetary from us, and more scared than I was when those same Union soilders left taking all of our food and the majority of our possesions with them.

Mrs. Compton, something about her name rings a bell in my injured brain. There was something I new I needed to remember to tell Mrs. Compton. Than as if I've been struck by lightening it all comes flooding back and I remember how I came to be where I am right now: Bill Compton.

I remember taking the dresses that Gran and I had been working on around the clock to the Madam who runs a house of ill repute in the French Quater. I remember hurrying to be out of there and rushing to get back to the tiny apartments that Gran and I share when I saw Bill Compton among the crowds in the street. I remember thinking that I could not believe it was him. The war had ended two years ago and we all thought him dead. Poor Mrs. Caroline still cried every day infront of the empty grave she had made for him and here he was not two days journey away in New Orleans. I remember him seeing me as well and calling me over to him. If it had been anyone else I would not have gone over. Gran told me not to talk to anyone. It was bad enough, she said, that we had to stoop to making dresses for ladies of the night just to survive, but she wanted me to drop them off, get our money, and be gone before anyone thought that her grand daughter was one of those ladies.

But surely she wouldn't mind my talking to Mr. Compton. I'd only been a girl when he left for the war seven years ago, but I always remembered him being very kind and a good neighbor who always helped Gran out around the farm since Jason was too young and my pa and grandpa were dead. And after all he was a hero in our town, one of our fallen boys, one of our glorious dead, although I guessed from looking at him that he wasn't too dead after all. Still I was sure that Gran wouldn't mind my talking to Mr. Compton and then I could find out if his family knew he was here, and let him know how much they missed him.

I remember that almost as soon as I came up to him, he started talking to me in an eerie voice. He wanted me to go into the ally with him, and when I wouldn't he began to get agitated. I remember that I couldn't hear his thoughts at all and I thought that was incredibly strange since I remembered hearing them before when I was a little girl. But I didn't have to much time to contemplate that since when I would not go with him he began to get angry and try harder to persuade me. I tried to get away from him, but he took me by the upper arm and faster than I could process we were in the ally, and then, then...dear God!

It's all so hazy, and my head hurts so bad, but I know that I remember what happened. I know that it isn't a dream, or a halluciation brought on by the bump on my head. Then Mr. Compton bit me! He sunk teeth that I couldn't see but knew to be animal sharp into me and drank my blood! I shudder thinking about it, and touch my neck. Sure enough as if to reassure me that I'm not going crazy I feel two scabbed over puncture marks there. I shudder as I remember him making the most awful noises of enjoyment as I struggled and tried to get away from him, but to no avail. After a minute or two I started to get woozy and I knew that he was taking to much blood. I begged him to stop and finally he pulled away from me, still holding me firmly to the ally wall.

"Yes darling, you right you're far to good to waste all in one sitting." He looked at me with crazy, lust filled eyes, and licked my blood off of his lips. He started to try and pull me with him, but even though I was no match for his strength I was making a lot of noise protesting and struggling against him. That was when everything went black. He must have bashed my head against the ally wall and knocked me out.

Before I can think on anything else I hear a door open somewhere above me. The light from behind the door illuminates a woman I've never seen before. She looks down into what must be the cellar where I'm being held and stares straight at me as though she can see me clearly even though it's too dark down here to see anything. Again I'm terrified. What has happened to me, where am I, who are these people, or things? Oh God how I wish I were home with my Gran right now!

The woman makes her way down the stairs and straight towards me. I want to get up and run. I want to scream. I want to do anything that might alert somebody somewhere that I am here and that I need help, but all I can do is watch paralyzed with fear as she comes towards me.

Without so much as a word she hauls me up off the dirt floor of the cellar and drags me up the stairs. When we walk through the doors we are in a small kitchen and I see Mr. Compton sitting at the table. The woman throws me down in the chair nearest to me and grabs my face in her two hands.

"Now listen here little girl, there is no point screaming or trying to run. William and I are both far stronger and far faster than you. Do you understand?" I nod my head, as much as I can while it's trapped in her hands, and make a small mewling sound. I'm so scared and my head still hurts. "Good. If you behave you might live through the night." She chuckles menacingly at me and I am duly terrified. Without another word she lifts my wrist, I see two small sharp teeth snick down, and bite into it. It hurts terribly and I cry out in pain, but I make no move to pull my wrist away. It's pinned inbetween her teeth and her hand and though I want desperatly to make the pain there stop I know that jerking it away will only tear the skin and cause an even greater injury. Unlike Mr. Compton she only drinks for a few seconds. Then suddenly her teeth retract and she licks my wrist. When she drops my hand I see that the wound has somehow been healed and I am no longer bleeding. The woman looks over at Mr. Compton and smiles a smile that would be terrifying even if she were not licking my blood from her mouth at the same time.

"Oh William, you were right. She's absolutely delicious. You've done very well William, very well!" Her frightening smile widdens an she runs one blood red fingernail from his cheek all the way down his chest. Mr. Compton smiles back at her and I see now the sharp teeth that bit me before. What on earth has happened to Mr. Compton?

"You see now why I wanted to keep her. She is exquisite, if we are careful we can enjoy her over and over again," at this he looks me up and down and I know he isn't just talking about my blood, "for many years to come." He turns back to the woman with a hopeful, hungry look in his eyes. I turn my head and look with him and really see her for the first time. She is terrifying and beautiful all at once with long dark hair, half of which is pulled into a bun in the middle of her head and the other half left to flow freely down her back. She has porcelin white skin and blood red lips, still coated of course in my blood, and her eyes are a peculiar purplish shade. Despite her beautiful features she has about her a hard, cruel look and after what I have seen tonight I know that if I am to escape it won't be by getting up from this chair and running for the door, that would simply be suicide. On hearing Mr. Compton's words her face hardens even further and I see displeasure written all over it.

"William I told you we don't have the means to keep a pet. I won't tell you again, you are my child. You will not question me!" Her eyes blaze at this and though I don't understand what she has said even I know that she will tolerate no further arguement.

"No of course not Lorena, I'm sorry, I only meant to please you by bringing her here." Mr. Compton's voice takes on an obseqious tone and it's clear that he is every bit as afraid of this Lorena as I am. But on hearing his words of submission and contrition she again smiles.

"And you have William, you have. But I have a better idea as to what we should do with this little southern belle you've come across. With such an exquisite taste and such a lovely body she will make a perfect gift to the Queen. And I'm sure once the Queen has tasted all of her charms she will be more than happy to reward us for our generosity." Mr. Compton frowns at this but he clearly knows not to say anything, instead he just nods and casts his eyes down.

Without any further warning I'm hauled from my seat at the table and dragged out the front door of their house and into a waiting carriage. The woman named Lorena rapps out an address to the driver and shoves me into the seat. Once inside, she sits on one side of me an Mr. Compton sits on another. Lorena turns to me and eyes me up and down.

"Listen very carefully little girl, you will keep your mouth shut and do as I say or I will rip out your throat and drink down every delicious drop of your blood before it has a chance to cool." As if to emphasize her point her sharp teeth decend again with a snicking noise. She lets me get a good look at them before turning away to look outside the window.

I want desperately to pleed for my life, to beg Mr. Compton on our aquintence and on his decency as a Sourthern Gentleman to let me go, but I know that such pleas will fall on deaf ears. No, the best I can do now is behave and bide my time, an opportunity for escape will come eventually, and I want to live long enough to see it. I take a few calming breaths and try to brace myself for whatever is coming next.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Bill's POV

When we arrive at the palace Lorena drags the little Stackhouse girl out of the carriage and hauls her into the reception area. The girl is clearly frightened but so far she is taking the whole thing remarkably well. I only knew her a little in my human life, but I remember the towns people calling her crazy and whispering about her peculiarities behind her back. I remember thinking a time to two myself that she was passing odd, but truthfully I haven't thought that for a single second since seeing her last night.

No, all I can think about is the remarkable taste of her blood and the equally remarkable body I know to be hiding underneath all those yards of lace and linnen. Her dress is simple but it clings to her in all the right places and it's clear that her corsett only strains against her body in one spot, around those lovely overly large breasts that call out to be squeezed and bitten even though they are modestly covered.

It was a complete fluke that I happened to be in that section of the French Quarter last night, looking for a prositute to feed on when she saw me. She called out to me with great suprise, and at first all I could think of was asking her about my wife and my children. Were they okay, how did they handle my "death"? I even thought of asking her how her Grandmother was, and if her brother had survived the war, but as she got closer to me I was overtaken by her scent and any thoughts beyond feeding from her and finding a place to fuck her were forgotten.

As we walk from the reception area into the audience chamber I feel myself trying deperately to hold my temper. The Stackhouse girl is mine by rights. I am the first to taste her, the first to find her, if I desire to keep her that should be my right. But I have no rights. Lorena is beautiful, but that beauty barely conceals the beast within her. In the past two years I have learned that she is capable of horrible cruelty and that to defy her is to incite her rage. So even though the girl should be mine, I know that should I desire to live long enough to taste any other human I must aquiese to my maker's demands. And so here I stand as Lorena bows obsequiously to her Majesty and tells her of the great find the girl is.

At first Sophie-Anne looks unimpressed, it seems as though she will reject our "present", but then Andre enters from wherever he has been gadding about and the entire atmosphere of the room changes. It's clear from the way he continues to eye the girl's neck and breasts that he is quite happy at the prospect of trying out his new toy. Again I feel myself grasping for anything to calm me.

"Bring her here to me." Sophie-Anne commands. She still looks unimpressed but allows Lorena to drag the girl forward. The Queen wrinkles her nose at first at the sight of the poor thing. I left her down in the dirt cellar passed out for most of the day and so her dress is stained and her hair filthy, she also has a good size bruise on her forehead from where I struck her head against the ally wall last night, but once Sophie-Anne gets a sniff of her delectable sent she seems to change her mind.

For the second time tonight the girl cries out in pain as both Sophie-Anne and Andre take a wrist and sample her at the same time. Being as old as they are they take even less than Lorena and then seal the wounds. Both of them look almost drunk and I feel my jealousy escallating. Andre leans down and whispers something to the Queen so quietly that even vampire ears cannot pick it up, and suddenly her face lights up as though it's Christamas. She laughs excitedly and claps her hands together.

"Of course my love you are a genius!" She motions Andre to take the girl away and then smiles at Lorena and I. "I thank you for the wonderful gift, as you can see Andre and I accept. I will send one of my pets to you tomorrow with a little something to express my gratitude!" With that we are dismissed, but I just can't help myself.

"What does your Majesty intend to do with the girl?" I ask. I know before the words are completely out of my mouth that asking was a mistake, and now I see two sets of extremely enraged female eyes upon me. I know that Lorena will punish me latter for my insolence towards the Queen, but I stand stock still and stare at Sophie-Anne determined to at least get an answer for the pains I am about to recieve for asking. Sophie-Anne stares right back for a moment, but then her mouth breaks into a smile that is both condecending and indulgent.

"Andre desires that I send her to be trained. Her taste is quite unique and under all that grime she appears to be quite lovely. Having my own personal blood courtesan will make me the envy of all the other Kings and Queens." With that she turns her attention elsewhere and we are well and truly dismissed.

There are no words spoken between Lorena and I during the carriage ride home, but we are not through door for even a full minute when I feel her heeled boot crash into my lower back. The force of her kick sends me acrross the room, into the wall, and crumpling to the floor. It's only a moment more before I feel her repeatedly kicking my ribs, breaking each and every one of them. I don't say anything. In the past two years since my making I have learned that to make noise or to beg for her mercy only spurs her violent sadism. Instead I try to simply curl into a ball an accept the blows as best I can. When it's over I know that she will insist, in her blood lust that I fuck her- injuries and all- and then we will no doubt find a prositute to fuck to death together. This life has robbed me of everything. I am enslaved to this horrible monster and have become one myself.

But after tonight I know that I will have at least one thing for myself. One thing no matter how long I have to wait, no matter what it costs me. The Stackhouse girl will be mine!


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I own nothing_

Eric's POV

I sit back in the carriage and try to enjoy the solitude. Time to myself has become something of a precious commodity in the last few years. I suppose this is what happens when one begins to take their autonomy for granted; it gets snatched away!

I sigh, there is no use bemoaning my lot in life. In truth things are not all that terrible even if my independance is for the moment gone. I remember the exact moment when that happened, when I felt my maker's call once more after hundreds of years of blissful silence.

Appius called me to him, and since I had not yet released Pamela she had no choice but to come as well. I don't think that she minds our new "business venture" as much as I do, but still I wish that I had released her and given her the choice before my maker called. Instead we both dutifully came to Appius here in the New World, in this muggy southern backwater still devestated from years of war.

Eight hundred years ago my maker chose me because I was a warrior, a man, somewhat like himself who was trained to live his life by the sword. It was the one thing that we had in common among all the other quite alien things he would introduce me too. But as the world has civilized so has our kind and there are precious few battles left to fight and ever fewer reasons to swing a sword. And so after countless centuries of being a warrior my master has decided to try a new path, or perhaps for him it's a very old path since, having been a wealthy Roman in his human life, he is more than accustomed to owning people as property. In truth the idea is not a bad one. Since my master cannot indulge his lust for violence, as often as before, he has decided to take his lust for sex and blood to a new level, training worthy humans to be the perfect toys for wealthy vampires. Tonight it seems is the high point of this new venture. The Queen of Louisana herself desires to have a pet specially trained. It's a bit out of the ordinary for our clients to bring us a human, normally Appius procures them himself. But according to the Queen this girl is quite unique.

And it appears that I should feel honored that I have been chosen by my master to train her! Again it's not so much that I dislike this new life Appius has created, after all I am a vampire, sex and blood are two of my favorite things, and Appius has created a system were by they come to us! Yet it's never been what my master has done to me (well it's mostly not been what he's done to me) but the loss of choice that I despise. And so as the carriage pulls up to the palace I take an unnessecary but steadying breath and prepare to meet the human that will occupy most of my time for the next few months.

I bow low as I am presented to her Majesty. She smiles laciviously at me in return. She prefers women these days, but she still makes an exception for Andre, and from her smile I take it she would make an exception for me as well. I couldn't really care less but one should never overlook an opportunity for leverage over a vampire royal.

"My dear Eric. I'm so glad that Appius sent you. It's been so long since we've had the chance to chat." She holds out her hand and I come forward to place a kiss on it. I look her in the eyes as I do so and I can see her pupils dialate ever so slightly. Woman, vampire or human, are all the same it seems. Truly I'm beginning to worry that I'm growing bored with existence.

"Majesty, I asked personally to be the one to come so that I might spend even a few moments in your presense." I smile widely at her but my mind is already wondering elsewhere. It doesn't take a great deal of effort to flirt with Sophie-Anne and only a minimal amount of attention. Once she starts talking, about herself of course, I will only need to interject a few interested sounding mumbles and she will take care of everything else. Indeed the Queen rambles for quite some time but eventually we get to the point of my visit.

"Well I suppose that I should introduce you to the girl." Sophie-Anne gives a signal to one of her guards and within a few moments he reappears with a young female in his grip. Her dress is stained with dirt and it appears she's been through quite a bit in the last few nights. She has her head down the entire time the guard is walking her to the dias steps but when they stop she looks up, fright apparent in her eyes.

Frightened and dirty she might be but absolutely nothing could ever make this girl anything but utterly exquisite. I am not a man accustomed to silly romantic yearnings, but when I look on her every trite cliche seems to suddenly make sense. She is like the sun, golden and brilliant. Though she is not very tall the inner light which radiates out of her seems to make her the only thing worth attention in the room.

She is quite young, perhaps eighteen or nineteen but not more. Her hair which appears to initially have been swept up falls around her shoulders and down to her waiste in the most becoming dishevelment. Her eyes are simply huge and sparkle like a clear blue pool, and her lips are berry pink and cleary designed to be kissed and sucked upon. Her neck is long and graceful and the vein their throbs enticingly. As for her body. It's hard to tell what her lower half looks like of course, but her waiste is clearly slender and her bossom absolutely lush. I could not design a more perfect looking sexual toy if I had the power of all the Gods combined. Suddenly I'm rock hard and filled with anticiaption. This lovely creature will be mine to train, mine to feed from and to fuck for the next few months. If it were possible I become even more aroused when I take a small breath of her scent and find it to be insanely intoxicating and...innocent! I have to grip the arm of the chair that I am sitting in when this last realization hits me. She is a virgin! It's all I can do to make the last few niceties required for the evening.

"As always your Majesty has utterly excellent taste." I say still looking at the girl, unable to make my eyes look anywhere else. I hear Sophie-Anne's tinkling laughter and she claps her hands once or twice in amusement.

"Well Andre liked her rather better than I did when she was first brought to us, but after tasting her I came round to his point view. She is lovely and her taste is magnificent, she has the potential to be so much more than a mere meal or a pet. Of course now that I know you will be training her I am utterly confident that she will be magnificient. A great treat for Andre and I, a sought after favor for my most loyal friends, and a source of envy to my fellow monarchs." I nod my head, for once Sophie-Anne and I are in complete agreement.

"I promise you that you will not be disapointed. When her training is complete she will be unlike any human any of us have ever fed upon." I smile to myself and allow my eyes to rake over the girl once more. Suddenly existence doesn't seem quite so terribly boring. Out of the corner of my eye I see Sophie-Anne looking at me and her expression turns quite hard. I force my eyes away from the girl and to my Queen.

"I _**know**_ you will not disapoint dear Eric. I am giving up a great gift by allowing you to take her virginity. If she does not come back perfect you and your maker will know." She smiles at me coldly and of course her message is received, Sophie-Anne has always been a sledgehammer where subtility was involved.

I bow low to her, bid her goodnight, and turn to leave, the guard holding the girl following close behind. The girl says nothing but I can tell by the way that her breathing escallated during my conversaton with Sophie-Anne that she is now more terrified than ever. This will not do. I don't have time to deal with either stubborn defiance or viginial fright. If I am to train her well she must trust me. To that end I decide that we should talk on the ride back. The more comfortable and excepting she is the easier, and more enjoyable, things will be all around.


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Sookie's POV

We follow the tall blond creature to a carriage and the guard is just about to toss me in when the man...Eric... turns around and offers me his hand to alight. I am terrified, more so now after the confusing conversation they've all had about me than I was before. This little show of gentlemanly courtesy is quite welcome though and I take the offered hand. I'm immediately startled by how cold it is, and realize that I was too frieghtend before to realize that all the others, Mr. Compton, the woman named Lorena, the Queen, and the smaller blond man were all cold too. Perhaps it is the fact that this man is not trying to bite me that allows me to think about something as trivial as the temperature of his skin.

Once we are both in the carriage we set off. I want to ask where. I want to attempt to jump from the coach, but I do nothing. I have to keep my wits about me if I am to get home, jumping from a carriage and breaking my leg will not get me anything but injured and then put back in the carriage. It has only been two nights, but I am beginning to feel hopeless. I don't understand anything going on around me other than that I have somehow become a prisoner to beings who cannot possibly be human. I want to cry and scream and pull out my hair all at the same time, my mind rebelling completely at the evidence my eyes have gathered. Instead I look at my newest captor and try to figure out how to proceed, if indeed anything is really up to me at this point.

The man, creature, named Eric sits stone still across from me on the other carriage bench. He is looking at me, I know, but I can not tell in the slightest what he might be thinking and I doubt my asking will get me anywhere. So instead I just look at him in return. I am not a complete innocent. I have kissed a man before, my fiance Sam Merlotte, and even though I have lived in a small town most of my life I have seen a great many men since coming here to New Orleans and so it is not without some experience that I say that I have never seen a man such as the one before me in all my life.

When I was brought back infront of the woman they all refer to as Queen I was only terrified that they would bite me again, but when I looked up it was as if the whole room ceased to exist and there was only this being before me. Taller than any man I have ever met, with hair like spun golden silk, and eyes that look as I imagine the ocean does during a storm. I can see that under his fine clothes he is broad and muscled with huge shoulders and arms. He looks like something out of history book, a man to masculinely beautiful to be a part of the dull humdrum of everyday life.

Despite my fear, and the knowledge that he is no more my friend than any of the other creatures that have imprisoned me, I desire to kiss him. To see if the full blush colored lips are as soft as they appear. I want to know what it would be like to have him take me in his arms and wind his hands through my hair. I wonder what his hair would feel like running through my own hands. My thoughts seem to carry me away and soon there is an unfamiliar aching between my legs and it's all I can do not to reach under my skirt right here in front of him and try to alliviate it. As I become more uncomfortable it seems he does too, though I can't figure out why that should be. He shifts around slightly in his seat as though he is looking for a more comfortable angle, all the while staring at me with an expression that has been evolving from cold disinterest to something else, something heated. Finally when I can take the throbbing between my legs no more he suddenly speaks.

"What is your name?" It's brusquely said and his voice has a gravelly quality it did not when we were infront of the other creatures. I am still terrified, but the ache between my legs is so bad that I will do anything to distract myself and so I answer him.

"Sookie Stackhouse sir." He smiles at me ever so slightly and nods his head.

"Sookie Stackhouse, I am Eric Northman." He does not hold out his hand and truthfully I think that touching him again would be a mistake for many reasons and so I nod in return.

"Do you know what I am Sookie? What the others in the palace where?" I read a book once by a man named James Polidori about dead creatures who remained alive, drank human blood, and slept in the ground, but they're appearance was nothing like the divinely beautiful man in front me. And besides I was raised with better sense than to believe fairy tales and stories about things that go bump in the night. Although after the last few nights perhaps I should rethink some of the things I have taken for granted as truth. Still I don't want to embarass myself by spouting fiction as fact and so I shake my head and hope that he will answer his own question.

"I am, we all are vampires," he says. My eyes light up at this, not because this is welcome news but because it is nice to be right about something after two days of being terrified and completely in the dark about everything.

"Like the story by Mr. Polidori?" I ask, letting it slip out in my excitement.

"Not quite," He chuckles, and then, once he has disgested my statement, his eyebrow shoots sky high. "You have read this book?" He asks looking astonished. I don't know why but I am starting to feel comfortable with him. He has not yet hurt me and he has been more kind and forthcoming than any of these creatures so far. It is perhaps niaevely stupid to do so but I cock my eyebrow right back at him in offense. I can't tell if he is astonished that I read this particular book, which it's true is passing unsuitable material for a lady to read, or if he is astonished that I read at all.

"I have. I know it's not proper reading material for a lady, but there were precious few books to be had during the war and my Gran thought under the circumstances that any distraction should be welcome." Again his eyebrow lifts.

"Your Gran seems like a wise woman." He says it nonchallantly but the mention of my Gran causes a deep pang in my heart and I have to stifle the sobs that want to break free. I do not know what will happen to me or where I am going, I do not know how I will ever get back to my life, but I will not cry infront of one of my captors. I didn't cry when Jason left for the war, I didn't cry when the union soilders took over our town and took all of our food, and I did not cry when news came that Jason was dead. I am a lady, and a southern lady at that, I will not bend or bow before the trials that God puts before me.

Just then the carriage stops infront of a stately mansion in the Garden district. Eric descends from the carriage and again offers me assistance. I take his hand again and this time I do not startle at the cold temperature of it. The front door is opened by a servant and Eric leads me up several flights of stairs and into a rather large and nicely furnished bedroom. He closes the door behind him but does not lock it.

"This will be your room for as long as you stay." He says gesturing to the bed, wardrobe, vanity, couch, and small tea table that make up the rooms furniture. I follow his eyes and swallow hard.

"And how long do you anticipate my staying here?" My voice sounds small and frightened but there is nothing that I can do about that since small and frightened is exactly how I feel. Eric walks up to me and takes both my arms in his hands, pulling me just close enough that I have to crane my neck to look him in the face but not close enough that we are touching at any other place. I feel my pulse quicken at his nearness, and as I take what I hope will be calming breaths I breath in his distinctly masculine, entirely dizzying scent. For some reason his scent more than anything else puts me at ease, and I am able to look at him without beginning to tremble as I feared I would. He in turn is looking down at me and there seems to be a malestrom churning in his storm blue eyes. I have no idea what he is thinking but I know that I do not want to look away.

"What have they told you about your future?" He says it softly but it still manages to terrify me. My future? I don't know whether to be more frightened that it seems as though I am to have one I know nothing about, or that I might not have one at all. I shake my head and try to keep the tears at bay.

"They have told me nothing. First I was on the street walking home two nights ago when I saw a man who had been my neighbor before the war, Mr. Compton. He kidnapped me and brought me to the home he shares with a woman named Lorena. From there they took me to the place where you came for me. I don't know anything except the conversation that you had with the woman they call the Queen, and honestly I didn't understand any of that, it just frightened me." I feel myself becoming more and more worried and as if knowing that physical contact would calm me Eric brushes his hand accross my cheek. The sensation is calming and exciting all at once and I feel a little frizzure of energy pass between us.

"Sookie, you must listen and accept the things that I am going to tell you. If you fight against them it will only go badly for you. The first is that there is no escape from this place. There will be a guard outside your door at all times and there are guards roaming the property. They are not anymore human than I am and you will not be able to trick or allude them. To attempt it would only bring severe consequences. Do you understand?" I gulp and nod. I can feel my eyes getting wider and my heart sinking all at the same time.

"If you are wise and choose to accept the hand that fate has delt you though, you will not be harmed and your life will be in no danger. In fact you will find that life can be very comfortable for you and you will never have to worry about money or the things it can buy again. Though there are many differences between the book you told me you've read and reality several things are the same. The first is that my kind, vampires, do drink the blood of humans, but only the very young are in danger of killing by accident. No one here is a threat to you in that way. The second is that we can only move around by night. So you will only see me after the sun sets, and you and I will see each other every night. You heard them say that you are to be trained yes?" I nod my head and again I feel that fear. I also heard them say that they intend to give my virginity away.

"Yes, but I don't know what that means." He smiles at me and I know he means it to look kind and reassuring, but I see something dark just beneath the surface of his eyes and it makes my stomach churn though from fear or from something else I couldn't exactly say.

"Your blood, according to her Majesty, is quite unique. It has saved you from what might have been an unpleasant fate, but it has also bound you in slavery Sookie." I see that Eric is done beating around the bush and is now going to tell me what my future supposedly holds. "Instead of keeping you for a pet or making a one time meal out of you, her Majesty has sent you to me an my master to be trained as a kind of... cortesan." I look up at him and I know the horror in my eyes is apparent.

"What kind?" My voice is again little and truly I wish that my body were just as small so I could scurry under the door like a mouse and make my escape.

"The kind who services vampires." His voice gets a cold edge to it.

"Then they want me for a prosititue. If that is so then why send me to you? I didn't think that sort of thing required an education." I want to sound cheeky but who knows how that statement really comes out. Eric chuckles again, but it isn't a sound made from amusement this time.

"Not a prostitute a cortesan Sookie, there is a difference. When you are done here and return to her Majesty you will have a position of great prestige. You will be treated better than any of her other pets and you will not need to worry about how you will live, her majesty will provide you with anything and everything you desire."

"Provided I give her my body." I say feeling the disgust rise into my voice. Eric chuckles again and again I find the sound of it unpleasant.

"That is not a choice Sookie, you will give her and anyone else she chooses to share you with your body. Your only choice will be whether or not you please her, and again I suggest that you be wise and do so, for your own good." I don't know what to say, my mind is realing and I feel that sickening sinking feeling in my stomach getting worse and worse.

"And you will... train me?" Eric nods this time taking one hand off of my arm and using it to tilt my chin all the way back so that we are eye to eye.

"I will. I will teach you everything that you will need to know to please her Majesty. I will show you all the ways there are for one being to pleasure another and I promise you Sookie, once we begin, you will not want me to stop. You will come to love the things we do to each other and the things I teach you to do to others." From terror I am transported again to that state where the place between my legs throbs. Perhpas the terror only heightens the other sensation because instead of just a throbbing I also feel a strangely pleasant moisture at the juncture of my thighs as well. At that exact moment Eric inhales deeply and I see the sharp animal teeth that the other vampires had come snicking down. If he were not holding me by one arm and my chin I would have jumped back startled, but I cannot move. Still Eric seems to sense my new terrror and he smiles, but kindly. Then suddenly I see his face coming towards mine and without warning his lips are gently brushing mine. I can feel the sharp teeth grazing my lower lip, but he does not allow them to puncture or cut me. Instead he he runs his tongue over my bottom lip and gently pries it open.

The feeling of his lips on mine is indescribable and his tongue gently tasting the inside of my mouth makes my knees go week. Suddenly, as though he knew my fantasy in the carriage, his arms are around me, supporting me, and molding my body to his. I hear a moan and realize that it's coming from me and then I hear his own answering mine. Time seems to stop and it is impossible to tell how long we have been like this, but after a while he gently releases me. I look up at him and I know my expression must be as dazed as my mind is hazy.

His own expression is predetory, but not in the way that the other vampires were. I don't fear that he will suck me dry and leave me like an empty husk on the floor. No instead I know that he wants things from me that I myself do not yet know or understand, but that he has clearly promised me I soon will.

"What you feel Sookie is arousal," he says in a voice more dark and thick than any I have ever heard before. "You may be frightened, but your body wants mine as much as mine wants yours." I know he is telling the truth and I feel both excited and shamed all at once that I am so transparent. He lowers his head and brushes his lips against mine again, but this time he does not allow the kiss to go any farther. "Tomorrow night I will come to you and we will begin your lessons. For tonight rest, knowing that you are safe from harm. When you awake pull the cord by your bed and someone will bring you food and fresh clothing." I nod my head and stare up at him still unable to form sentences. He nods in return and lets me go. When I am sure that I have my balance back I turn and watch him leave.

"And Sookie, take my warning to heart. There is no way of escaping, do not be foolish and try anyway." His look is cold and hard and I know that he is telling me nothing but the truth. I am still terrified and I still want to find a way back to my Gran and my real life, the one that has nothing to do with this nightmare, but part of me, the part that is still aching and throbbing and wet, suddenly wants to stay. Wants to find out what this man, this being, has instore for me, and if it will be as very blissful as he promises.

With that Eric closes the door and I hear the snick of the lock. I stand there for a few long minutes more and then decide to shed my clothes and lay down on the bed. Whether or not escape is possible I know that at least for the next few hours I am physically safe and it would be better to try to gain my freedom with my wits about me. Sleep can only help that.


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Eric's POV

The next night I arise with a feeling of anticipation. It has been a long time since I have looked forward to anything and I can say with certainity that I have never looked forward to a thing as much as I am looking forward to this first night with Sookie. When we kissed last night I had meant only for her to become arroused by it, enticed by it, but I found myself feeling those very things as well. The kiss was...exciting! Exciting in a way nothing as simple as just a kiss has ever been before. As much as I dislike Andre I find him rising at least a notch or two in my estimation for seeing this girls potential. She would be wasted as nothing more than an ordinary pet and of course if she had been so wasted I would never have gotten the opportunity that now presents itself to enjoy her so thoroughly.

I dress in just a simple shirt and pants tonight, something easily taken off, and make my way to her room. The guard there bows to me and unlocks her door. I enter, closing it behind me. She is sitting at the vanity her back to me, but when she hears the door open she turns slightly. I feel as though the rest of the world falls away and there is nothing but this girl. I see that she did indeed call for the maid today as I instructed her, and it's clear that she has been bathed as well as changed. I will remember to reward the day maid for choosing the garments she did.

Instead of bringing Sookie a new dress the maid has brought her an exquisite matching gown and robe. Both are made out of a sheer linnen material edged in lace and the outline of Sookies body is clearly apparent underneath the material. I can now see with certainty that her lower body is as perfectly formed as her upper half. Beneath the gown and robe she is naked and her little feet are uncovered. Her hair has been half swept up and the rest left to flow down her back to her waist. She looks like an angel. The single most arousing, sexually desirable angel to ever exist.

"Come here Sookie," I command softly. She obeys immediately gliding toward me as the robe and gown float around her. When she is just an inch or so from me she stops and looks up at me. I find myself desiring to comfort and reassure her.

"Tonight we will begin your training." I say it softly again and she nods at me. Her eyes are liquid and huge and I can see the fright in them though. Beautiful though she is she is still human and now a slave. I have trained dozens of others just like her and I owe her no further explanations, and yet I find that I want to give them. I want her to be comfortable with me. But most unexpectedly, I find that I want her to want me and all the things I will do to her as much as I want them.

"I swear to you Sookie, you have nothing to be frightened of. You will dislike nothing we do tonight." I brush my hand across her cheek and see a tiny bit of the tension within her release. "I promise that I will bring you only pleasure." I whisper and pull her to me, drawing her into a desire filled kiss. I try to keep the kiss light but I find it difficult to do so. I want her as crazy with desire as I have already become just thinking about what we will do, and so as I kiss her I run my hands down her sides, over her full soft breasts, and around to her back. I carress the gentle slope of her spine and let my hands lightly squeeze the delicious globes of her bottom.

As if I had struck a match under her she begins to respond to my kiss and my touch in earnest. Throwing her arms around my neck and winding her fingers in my hair. She presses her body to me and I feel her delicious heat and softness rubbing against me. After a few minutes, when the scent of her arousal begins to perfume the air around us, I break our kiss and step back from her.

Passion becomes her and again I think that she may have been made by the Gods for such pleasure. Her face and neck are stained in the most becoming blush, her lips are petal pink and swollen from our kiss, and her hair is mussed from my fingers. In short she is perfection. Now that she is past her fright we can truly begin.

I take the string that ties her robe and gently undo it, letting the garment fall open to reveal the nightgown beneath. She inhales sharply as I take the open ends of the robe and push it off her shoulders. I look to her face to see her watching mine intently. As we gaze at each other I take the tiny straps of her gown and push it down and off her body as well. I see in her eyes the moment she realizes that she is naked before me. Her arms automatically go up to try and cover herself but I catch them both in each of my hands and bring them down to her sides.

"Do not hide yourself from me." I tell her softly. I see her blush even deeper and hear her breathing escallate but she only nods at me and lets her arms go limp at her sides. I take another step back and truly look at her for the first time. As my eyes sweep over her I feel myself self grow impossibly harder. Her skin is the color of peaches and cream and looks smoother and softer than the gown she was wearing. Her breasts, which are now heaving in a combination of fear and anticipation, are full and soft and perfectly rounded, with pert little blush pink nipples for crowns. Her waist is every bit as small I thought it would be and leads to the most deliciously rounded hips. Her legs are not long but they are perfectly formed and lead to tiny, dainty little feet. As to what lies between her legs I can see already that it is as perfect as the rest of her, crowned with golden curls just same color as the ones on her head and giving off the most delicious, darkly erotic perfume I have ever smelled. It's all I can do not to push her to the floor and burry myself there. But I remind myself that she is still innocent. If I wish to have her trust and her cooperation than I must proceed slowly.

I hold out my hand to her and she comes to me. I smile in approval of her obediance and she nods as though she understands that she must obey me. I lead her over to the bed.

"Lay down on your back little one," I gently command. She nods again and lays in the middle of the bed. I come over to the side and I see her head turn to follow me. I put one knee on the bed at her side and bend down bringing my hand down to carress her forehead. I can see the pulse in her neck pounding and I know she is unprepared for what I will say next.

"You must know yourself before you can understand how to please another. Do you understand my meaning Sookie?" I ask still gently stroking her hair line. She shakes her head at me and I again smile in reassurance. She is so incredibly innocent. To have her first is every bit the gift the Queen said it would be. The hand that was stroking her hair now goes lower carressing her cheek, her chin, the curve of her neck. My hand stops to make swirls around one prettily pointed nipple, and then lowers to graze her ribs and the curve of her hip. It stops right at the top of her sex. "Open your legs little one, bend them at the knee." I hear her shocked breath and I chuckle a little. "I'm not here to have tea and conversation. Spread your legs." I put just a little emphasis behind my words and she obeys immediately. I smile again to show her I am pleased. I bring my hand down lower and begin to carress her folds. She inhales again but this time it's not from shocked modesty.

"Ohh, ohh" She sighs softly and I find myself again barely hanging on to restraint. Gently, gently I part her revealing her little nub and entrance. My hand begins to work her there.

"This is the center of your pleasure little one. There are other places on your body that it will bring you great pleasure to feel touched," as I say this I bring my head down and kiss her pretty nipples illiciting another soft sigh from her, "but here," I press down more firmly on her clit and see her hips buck slightly, "here is where you will feel it the most, here is where it will bring you the greatest pleasure." I release the sweet nipple I've been talking around and look up at her. Her eyes are hooded and her pupils glassy. Without another word I take her hand in mine and bring it down to were my other hand is caressing her. I lift my hand away leaving only her own on her wet sex. She gives a strangled little cry and I see confusion in her eyes.

"What do I do?" She asks. I smile at her and carress her cheek once more.

"What feels the best. You will know." She looks more terrified than I have ever seen her but I do not let her gaze leave mine. I nod my head once and I see her realize that I intend to watch. Again her face is stained in a deep crimson blush. "Touch yourself Sookie, please yourself for me." She swallows hard, but If the scent coming from her juncture is any indication she is far to aroused to fight much longer. I am right and within a moment or two she begins to rub her little pearl intently. Whether she has ever done this before or not I cannot tell, but it seems I was right, she does know exactly what to do. Bringing her fingers down to her entrance, but never venturing inside it, she gathers the wetness there and uses it to help work herself. Soon she is moaning and writhing on the bed, her hips bucking to meet her hand. She never takes her eyes off of me as she touches herself, and I find myself utterly entranced by her.

Just as she is about to come she brings her other hand to her breasts and starts pinching and squeezing them. She moans out incoherently and at the last moment her eyes roll back in her head and she falls off the cliff. Afterwards she lays there exhausted, still gently caressing herself through the after shocks.

"Have you ever done that before?" I ask again caressing her forhead.

"No." She says simply. "I was taught that was a sin." I try not to laugh at her, but I can feel my eyebrow reaching high on my forhead.

"It's no sin to take pleasure in the body the Gods have given you, little one." She doesn't seem to understand and looks away from me clearly becoming ashamed. Instead of arguing with her further I pull her hand to get her attention. She looks over at me and I pull her up out of the bed. "Have you ever seen a man naked Sookie?" I ask her. She shakes her head no and tries to look elsewhere. I put my hand to her chin and bring her face back to mine. Bending I take her lips again and kiss her deeply, letting my fangs scrape softly against her lips before dropping to her neck to lick and suck at the vein there. When I hear her begin to moan again I break our kiss. "Undress me Sookie, I want to feel your skin against mine." I whisper to her and again I see desire and anticipation take her. Looking down at my chest she begins to unbutton my shirt. When she gets to the waisteline of my pants she pulls the shirt out and finishes with the buttons. When it is fully open I shrug it off of my shoulders and let it fall to the floor. She takes a deep breath when my chest is revealed to her gaze. "Touch me little one." I whisper. She squeezes her eyes shut for one moment and when she opens them I see them filled with determination.

She continues to stare at my chest as she brings both her hands up and brushes them over my collar bones, brings them down lightly grazing my nipples, and going lower to trace the definition of my stomach muscles. When her hands come to my waist again she doesn't hesitate before undoing my pants and letting them drop to the floor. I hear her startled gasp when she sees me completely naked. As I take a step toward her and out of the pants puddled on the floor she takes a step back, the backs of her knees hitting the bed and forcing her to sit down. I smile when I see that her face is level with my cock. Exactly where I have wanted it.

"Don't be frightened Sookie, I won't hurt you." She looks up at my face and then back down at my cock as if trying to decide what it's for.

"You're going to put this," She points to it but doesn't touch it, "inside of me?" I hear the shudder in her voice and I want to laugh again at her silly virginal fears. As we progress with her training she will be begging me to put "this" inside of her each and ever night. No one I've ever bedded has ever been dissapointed, but I try to be sympathetic to her fears none the less. If she thinks that touching herself is a sin, no doubt she thinks that sex will be completely unpleasant.

"Not tonight little one. But soon. Right now all I want you to do is touch it." I bend down and take her hand in mine again and place them both on my cock showing her how to stroke it. When she has the rhythm I let my hand fall and just enjoy the feeling of her warm fist pumping me for a few minutes. It feels divine, I'm so rock hard after watching her bring herself off for the first time that it takes every bit of self restraint I have not to come right now. Instead I ask her for her other hand and bring that one to my balls teaching her how to massage them, and showing her the slightly hard patch of flesh just beyond them that brings so much pleasure when massaged. She alternates the entire time between watching my eyes and watching my cock. After a few minutes I bring my hand to the back of her head cupping it. She stops and looks up at me.

"What you are doing feels very good and it would bring me pleasure all on its own but there is something else that will bring me greater pleasure. The final part of your lesson for the night. Open your mouth and breath through your nose." She looks astonished as though she knows what I intend for her to do but she can't believe that she is being asked to do it. My look turns slightly hard and she capitualates. I take my cock in my hand and guide it gently into her mouth. At first I let just the tip sit there and instruct her to suck on it. After a minute or two I withdraw and come back letting her take more of me. It takes several minutes for her to adjust enough to take me almost fully, but she does and I am both astonished that she can on the first try and utterly turned on by the site of my cock completely dissapearing between her swollen pink lips.

"Look at me Sookie." Her eyes meet mine and I begin to work my cock in out of her mouth in earnest. I try to remain calm but the feeling is so good that I begin to moan. Eventually I am so over come that I loose my concetration and just stand there savoring the feeling of her hot tight little mouth on me and to my astonishment she doesn't miss a beat, but begins to work her mouth on me unaided.

The hands that had dropped to her sides when I began feeding her my cock come back up and one carresses by balls while the other rubs the skin just beyond as I showed her. The feeling is magnificient and suddenly I come hard shooting down her throat.

Far from being shocked she makes a deep moaning noise as she takes all of my essense and I again smell the perfume of her arousal. This is as far as I had intended to go tonight. But I find that I want to bring her the kind of pleasure that she has just brought me, and the smell of her arousal is so incredibly alluring that I know I have to taste it.

When I have finished emptying into her I pull out of her mouth. Taking her arms in both my hands I haul her up and slant my mouth down on hers, sweeping my tongue into her mouth and tasting my essense there. She presses her body against mine and I feel for the first time the sensation of her lovely breasts crushed against my chest without any barrier, and her legs entwining with mine. I pick her up and deposit her back on the bed lying underneath me this time. She seems utterly taken by the passion between us and runs her hands over my chest and arms as we kiss again. I break our kiss and look down at her.

"You have done very, very well Sookie. I wish to reward you. Would you like that?" She nods up at me too breathless and aroused to make an answer. I smile at her utterly pleased that she is every bit as passionate as I had hoped. I kiss her lips one more time and then trail down her body. I stop only briefly at her breasts, they are far to lovely to be ignored even with my determination to taste her, and I lick, and suck, and gently bite them for a few minutes. When I am satisfied that they glisten properly with my saliva in the candlelight I make my way farther down to my goal. I look up at her face and find her watching me as I spread her legs once more bending them at the knee.

"What you have just done for me I can also do for you. Would you like that Sookie? Would you like to feel my tongue tasting you?" I emphasize my point by running one finger from her entrance to her clit and see her head fall back and her mouth open on a moan. "Answer me little one." I say punctuating my command with a small tweek to her clit.

"Yes, oh yes," she sighs out breatlessly. I choose not to tease her anymore, she has performed remarkably well this first night and I desire her to understand that the reward for pleasure is pleasure in return. It will not always be so, when she leaves here she will encounter all sorts of vampires who desire only to take, but with me her teacher she will always be rewarded. It is an essential part of the trust she must have in me, that she will need when we move on to harder things, but I find that it is something I want desperately for her to have in me, the knowledge that at least once in her life to come she was with someone who desired to please her as much as he enjoyed the pleasure she gave.

I have never felt this way towards a human before, but I find that I do not want to examine these emotions and desires to closely. Instead I bend my head to my task and finally let my tongue play through her folds. I feel drunk after just the first taste and I know that even though I did not intend to tonight I will enjoy eating her and I will bite her. It's no longer a choice. Her taste is so divine that the instict to bite nearly overpowers me. But I continue on licking and sucking at her, gathering her wetness on my tongue an teasing her little nub as she moans and writhes above me, fisting her hands into the sheets and calling my name. Just as she is about to come I insert a single finger into her tight untouched passage and turn my head and sink my fangs into her thigh.

She orgasms immediately screaming out as my finger pumps her and I drink slowly from her artery. She is utterly divine, her blood is even more magnificent then the sweet dark essence between her legs, and I feel completely overwhelmed by her, by her blood in mouth, her esence on my face and my finger, and by her beautiful cries wringing in my ears. I realize that if I taste her much longer I will not be able to stop and so I lick the wounds closed and give her entrance one last gentle pump before removing my finger. I lean back on my knees and look at the girl before me.

Her hair is splayed out around her, she is flushed pink from the intensity of her orgasm and her hands are still rhythmically squeezing the sheets beneath her. I want her again. I want her fully, but I know that it's time to stop for the night. So I whisper her name softly.

"Sookie, look at me." She does though how much she can see through her glassy eyes I don't know. I smile down at her again. "You must sleep. Ring for the maid when you awake. I will leave her instructions to bring you several dresses tomorrow." She nods drunkenly and I cannot resist kissing her pert little nipples once more. After I do I get up from the bed, cover her, redress and leave, locking the door behind me and already making plans for her next lesson tomorrow.


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who reviewed my story, put it on alert, or in their favorites! Thank you all so much you really inspired me and kept me writting! Here are the next few chapters. I'm thinking that this story is kind of like an oreo. There was a lot of plot at the beginning, now we've moved onto the smut filled center, and then there will be a lot more plot at the end. So I hope you enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Sookie's POV

When I open my eyes sunlight is streaming through the window and it has never ever looked more glorious. Nothing in the room is different than it was night the before and yet the whole world seems different. I blush hotly as the memories of what happened on this bed last night come back to me, and a little moan escapes me as I feel the tenderness between my legs. There is no pain, but it almost feels as though Eric's finger is still there inside my body.

"Oh, oh GOD!" I turn my face into the pillow and try not think about what my Gran would say. How ashamed of me she would be. If I ever do make my escape I'll be ruined. No man will ever have me. Those thoughts lead to thoughts about Sam, and I begin to feel even worse. How could I have done those things last night, without even so much as a single protest? I'm engaged! The tears start to fall then. I wonder if Gran is looking for me? I wonder if she's gotten word to Sam in Bon Temps that I've gone missing?

I'm so ashamed of myself, but even as I feel my cheeks burning with horror over what I've done a little part of me rebels. Sam is a good man, a decent and honorable man. I have promised to marry him when things in Bon Temps get better, when his families business picks up again, and he can afford to keep a wife. I've even kissed him a time or two, but I never felt anything with Sam that would have led me to believe that what I felt last night was even possible.

I wanted to fight, I intended to fight, but when I saw Eric standing in the door last night, wearing nothing but pants and a shirt open at the collar, his long hair flowing down behind his shoulders and his hand outstretched to me I was taken by some sort of trance. At points in the night, when he first stripped me, when he ordered me to spread my legs, when he told me to open my mouth, the fear of the unknown had reared it's head and I'd stopped for just a bit, but even when I couldn't believe the things he was doing to me, making me do to myself, do to him, I wanted it, I wanted him. It was like a dark cloud descended over the rational, god fearing woman I know I was raised to be and my body simply took over. I liked it just as he said I would.

Again I burry my head in the pillow trying to hide my shame from the light of day. It was so easy last night to tell myself that I didn't have a choice, that I was a prisoner to this man, and to the desires of these creatures, and it made it that much easier to do all the things he commanded me to do. Who knows how I would have been punished if I had not? But in a way that is just a smoke screen to lessen my feelings of responsiblity. In the cold light of day I can say that what I did was wrong, haneiously wrong, and that I want more. I want more of him.

Without my permission I feel my hands start to wander over my body, visiting the places that he touched last night. My breasts feel full and heavy even now hours after his mouth has left them, my sides burn when I carress them in exactly the same way he did, and my sex throbs when I think about him there. Instantly my mind flashes to the sight of him last night, his beautiful golden head moving between my legs as his hands gripped my thighs keeping them open against his ministrations. I hear myself moan as my hands go down and touch the pulse on the inside of my thigh where he bit me. God, I let him bite me last night and I loved that too! It wasn't like any of the other bites these creatures have given me. It felt wonderful, amazing, there was only a sharp sting in the first moment, but that sting, that little bit of pain was what I needed to let loose and I remember that it brought that wonderful feeling crashing down onto me for the second time, so much stronger, so much for more fulfilling than the one I'd caused myself. Just as I am about to let my hands wander between my thighs again I hear the lock on the door snick open and then there is a knock.

"Ms. Stackhouse, may I come in?" The maid, I believe her name is Tara, enters without waiting for me to answer. I met her yesterday and she's a very nice girl. Just about my age with long jet black hair and pale pretty skin. At first when I met her, and realized that she was completely human I thought that she might be my best avenue for escape, but now I'm not so sure. I can hear clearly from her head that she enjoys her position here. The vampires, and she knows they're vampires, pay her well for her work and her silence, and from what I can gather the other "students" here are here by choice. Tara herself hopes that someday soon she might convince a man named Appius, who I can tell from her thoughts is the big boss vampire, to let her train as well. So far he hasn't said yes, but it seems that she thinks it's just a matter of time before he changes his mind.

"Good morning Tara." I say. She picks up my robe and nightgown from the floor, laying the nightgown gently over the arm of the sofa and bringing the robe over to lay across the bed.

"Good morning Ms. Stackhouse. I brought you some food and a few dresses. Mr. Northman said that these would be perfect for you." She holds up a pale pink silk dress, a white linnen dress edged in lace which looks a great deal like my nightgown, and a lovely dark blue satin dress for my inspection. Then as she did yesterday she has me sit down to eat while she brushes out my hair, helps me with a sponge bath, and dresses me in the pale pink silk. The entire time I make chit chat with her, hoping that if I can gain her friendship she might still be willing to help me in my escape.

It turns out that it's quite late already and so after Tara is done helping me she bids me good afternoon. I am alone again, but just when I despair that I will fall back into my fears, doubts, and recriminations I see that she has left me a small stack of books piled on the tea table. I go over and sift through them until I find the one I think will be most interesting and sit on the sofa to read. I am so engrossed that I barely notice Tara return to light the rooms lamps and candles and am startled when I hear Eric come in just as she is finishing.

"Good evening little one. Are you ready to begin?" I look up at him and again I'm overcome by this strange desire that seems to take my rational thought and my free will with it. What is he doing to me? I know though deep down that it isn't coming from him. It's not like the strange suggestions that Mr. Compton tried to compel me with. I don't feel any pressure on my brain. No, whatever Eric is doing he is using my own self against me. It's me who burns to know what will happen tonight even as I am frightened of it, and it's me who wants so badly to feel again the feelings he stirred in me, and to stir them in him. I want to see him filled again with the abandon that took him last night as his manhood released in my mouth. What is becoming of me?

I say nothing but stand up from my seat and look at him. He makes a head jesture to Tara and as though she has done this so many times before she doesn't actually need words anymore she comes up behind me and starts undresssing me. First she slips off the dress, then she removes my corset baring my breasts to Eric and leaving me half naked, next she helps me off with my slippers, and slides my knickers down, all while Eric stands and watches. Last night when it was just the two of us I felt erotic and utterly wanton as his hands undressed me, but right now I simply feel exposed. It's something else entirely to be stripped while another watches, like a whore on display.

When she is done Tara bobs a curtsey to Eric and leaves closing the door behind her. Now we are alone Eric closes the distance between us and looks me up and down again. I see his sharp teeth descend with a snick as his eyes glide over my breasts and take in the view below. I want to cover myself but I know he will not let me. Instead he finishes his assesement and brings his face back to mine. When he sees the blush staining them and the shame in my eyes he smiles gently and caresses my cheek.

"I know that you are very innocent still Sookie, but this is your life now. If you learn well from me and perform your duities to the Queen's pleasure you will be unclothed in front of a great many people. You must forget this modesty, it no longer becomes your station in life." He says it softly but his point hits home. If I cannot find a way out of here than this will be my life. It is almost unbearable to think that. Somehow if it could be just Eric and I, I know even after so little time, that I would give myself freely to whatever he wanted. But the thought of performing these acts and the many more he will teach me on others is somehow revolting. I try to swallow my fear down. I will find a way out of this, I will, now I must do what is necessary to survive though. To that end I nod at him and try to look as though I am not so bothered by my nudity.

He smiles again and proceeds to undress himself tonight. I watch in wrapt attention, glued to my spot infront of the couch, as he strips off his shirt and pants and removes his shoes. When he bends to lay them over the tea table I nearly cannot control the moan that wants to escape my mouth. His backside is as glorious as the rest of him and the muscles there flex just a little as he bends and then restraightens. He sees me staring at him and to my utter embarrasment chuckles softly. But thankfully he says nothing of it, his face growing serious instead.

He walks over to the bed and lies down on it, on his back, and offers me his hand to climb up as well. When I have joined him he takes my mouth in one of the searing kisses that I have become addicted to in just two short nights. Without even thinking I open my mouth, allow his tongue entry, and kiss him back. I run my tongue over his sharp teeth and he groans in response. As our lips part, I bring my hand tentatively up and touch those teeth. At first I am afraid he will be angry but instead he opens his mouth wider to make my inspection easier.

"What are these?" I ask softly. He chuckles in response and I feel the arm that has been holding me run down to my bottom and give it a gentle squeeze.

"Fangs," He says as though it should be obvious. When I don't say more he removes my fingers from his mouth, kissing them as he drops my hand on his chest. Without my telling it to my hand starts to stroke his skin. "Last night I showed you the things that people normally do as a prelude. Tonight I will teach you one more thing and then I will show you the finale." He doesn't ask, he informs, but I appreciate the warning just the same. It's all just a little less scarry if I know what is coming, but still I'm terrified of the thought of him putting his manhood inside me. Many of my friends are married now and when they have been bold enough to tell me stories about wifely duties they have always stressed how particularly unpleasant the first time is. It makes me shudder just a little. Again I feel Eric carressing my cheek.

"You are not my first virgin little innocent Sookie, I promise I will not hurt you." With that he pulls me down for another kiss and I forget all my protests as his hands begin to wander my body and he encourages me to explore his. As we kiss he rolls us over so that I am on top of him completely along the length of his body. After a few more minutes he breaks the kiss and looks at me with dark hooded eyes. His voice when he uses it has again that gravely quality that makes my sex throb.

"Do you remember last night when we tasted each other?" He punctuates the question with a quick sucking kiss to the vein in my throat. I nod my head and give a little moan when I feel him there. "Did you enjoy it?" I nod my head again, I don't know if he means when I tasted him or when he tasted me but it doesn't matter, I enjoyed them both. "Good, would you like to do that again?" I hear myself give a litte mmhm sound and he chuckles. "This time we will do it at the same time." With that he lays his head back and I look at him puzzled. "Turn around little one." I give him another puzzled look and he realizes that I still have no idea what he wants. He takes my hips gently in his hands and helps turn me on top him so that I am facing the end of the bed with his member right in front of my face and my knees on either side of his chest, baring my sex to him.

When I realize that he is right and that we can taste each other this way at the same time I give a little groan and feel my sex flood with moisture. Again I hear him chuckle as I feel one of his hands come up and carress my sex. It feels so good and so I wrap my hand around his manhood so that he can feel good as well. We stay just like that for a few minutes playing with each other until Eric is ready to show me what is next.

"Take me in your mouth little one just as you did last night." I do as he instructed last night and take first just a little of him and then progressively more until my nose is burried in the soft blond curls surrounding his base. I inhale deeply and feel more wetness flood me when I find that his scent is stronger, darker, more delicious here than anywhere else. It makes me dizzy and it clouds my mind and soon I am devoring him. Just then I feel his hands take my hips and his mouth descend on me too. The feeling of his lips, tongue, and fingers on me is indescribable and I work harder to make him feel the same pleasure.

It does not last overly long and soon Eric's member is shooting hot liquid down my mouth again and I feel myself taken over by that wonderful sensation again. I cry out, but the sound is muffled by my full mouth. I hear Eric cry out as well. He moans my name and it has never sounded so beautiful. When we are both done I lay my head down on his thigh and just try to breath. Suddenly I feel his fingers probing my entrance once more and without a word he slips his finger back inside of me. I am totally unprepared and still so senstive from the pleaure he's given me and I cry out startled and eager all at once.

"Relax little one, I will have you fully in a moment but I must prepare you first." I lay my head back on his thigh and allow myself to feel the wonderful sensation of his finger inside of me. After a while Eric works another finger into me and then another. There is a bit of pressure but he is so slow and so gentle that it does not hurt. All the while he whispers deeply dark words to me that I should find offensive but which instead spur my desire.

"You can have no idea how beautiful you look right now little one, spread before me, your lovely sex filled by my hand. The scent of your desire alone drives me crazy. You are magnificent and when I am finished teaching you men and women alike will sell their souls for a night in your bed and a single taste of your blood. You can have no idea the power you will have, the power that is already inside of you to make others crazy with desire." His words and his fingers put me into a trance like state where there is only need and the long climb to extinguishing it, and just when I am about to reach the top Eric withdraws his fingers.

Before I can protest he has gotten out from under me and pinned me beneath him. His hands, one still wet from my sex, fist into my hair and he brings his mouth down on mine hard and needy. I see it just before his lips touch mine, the naked want in his eyes, he is as powerless over what is happening between us as I am. I give in to him without another thought and as if by instinct my arms fly around his neck and my legs around his waist. The angle puts his rock hard manhood directly at the entrance his fingers just left and despite the ferocity of our kiss he pushes slowly slowly into me.

The feeling of being stretched for the very first time is unlike anything I have ever experienced but nothing about it is painful. Instead I feel myself nearing the top of the peak just as he pushes all the way in and when he begins to move in and out of me I am thrown over the edge. I cry out and grip him harder with both my arms and my legs and I hear him groaning above me. I cannot understand what he's saying but it seems as though I am pleasing him.

He thrusts in and out of me for some time and I find the feeling intoxicating. It causes a tightness to coil in my belly and the ache between my legs to get both more intense and more pleasant and suddenly I am experiencing my pleasure again and Eric is also. Just at the last moment his head turns from where it has been resting in the crook of my neck and I feel his fangs sink into the vein below my ear. Again I'm struck by how the slight pain only hightens the intense pleaure, causing the feeling that was subsiding to flare up again. We cry out together this time as he spills himself within me for the first time, and then he rolls to the side and pulls me into his arms.

I have no words and it seems neither does he and so for a long while we just lay there holding eachother, trying to find sanity again.


	7. Chapter 7

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Eric's POV

My mind is only partially working. I can feel the bed underneath me, and the warm, soft body of my little one beside me, but any higher thought beyond that seems out of reach. What on earth just happened?

I try to reason it out but it makes no sense. I have had sex with countless thousands of women and men in the last eight hundred years. I have trained countless slaves for Appuis in the last several years since he called me back to him, and I have enjoyed all of those encounters for what they are worth, which basically amounts to not much more than dinner and an orgasm, but nothing, nothing has ever felt like being inside this creature beside me.

Having her sweet sex infront of me dripping and wet was blissful in itself, but as I fucked her with my hand and whispered to her I became enchanted by my own spell, lost in the mood I was trying to create for her. When I flipped her around and burried myself in her it was a nearly mindless thing. I am lucky that I somehow retained the knowledge that I could not simply plunge into her. But once I was inside I was lost. I meant to wait, to let her adjust to the feeling of a man inside her, especially one as large as me. But she was simply so hot, so wet, so tight, and her scent, and her moans so intoxicating that I lost myself and pumped into her over and over again with abandon. But it was the moment I bit her that I seemed to be transported out of my body. The taste of her perfect blood coupled with the feeling of her perfect, untouched sheath surrounding my cock caused what can only be described as a spiritual experience. I felt as though I had seen the Gods in all their glory.

We are still silent but we are not done. I turn my head to Sookie and find her staring at me intently. Without a word I put her on her back and crawl down her body until my head is level with her sex. She spreads her legs wide without being told and watches me as I lower my head an inhale her scent. What hits me now is the most amazing aroma I have ever had the pleasure to experience. She does not just smell like herself anymore. Her whole body, but especially this exquisite little sex of hers smells like the two of us. It makes me nearly lose my mind all over again.

I give her a few soft swipes with my tongue drinking in the taste of both of us together. When I feel a fresh flood of her essense on my tongue I pull away, laying back down. I put my hands on her hips and pull her to sit on top of me. We stare at each other as I take her hand and bring it down to her little nub. WIthout needing me to tell her she begins to rub her little pearl. After a moment I feel her wetness beginning to coat my stomach and I raise her up and bring her back down slowly on my cock. She moans and takes me in completely, her little hand still working herself. When I'm fully inside her she stops and waits for me to guide her.

"Move yourself up and down on me, just like you did with your mouth." Without needing further encouragement she begins to move. I find myself unable to stop looking at her beautiful breasts as they bounce up and down with her efforts. They are so lovely that I bring my hands up and cup them, pinching and squeezing her nipples. She moans loudly and after a moment she looks down at me.

"Please, please take them in your mouth." She asks breathlessly, and I want nothing more than to do so but now I cannot. I shake my head at her.

"No, little one, you must never ask for pleasure. You are the source of others pleasure, you must not ask for it yourself. If you have a need you must find a way to satisfy it. Seeing you wanton and lost in passion will spur your partner on. This is your duty." She frowns and I can tell that she desperately needs more stimulation to reach her peak, but I cannot give it to her. She would be punished by anyone else for asking. But even though I have refused her I find I cannot punish her. She is so innocent. She knows nothing. It is my duty to teach her what is acceptable and what is not. I see she is becoming deperate, and I repeat my instruction. "Give yourself what you need." It seems to dawn on her what I'm saying and I see the second blush of the night stain her cheeks. But again she is to desperate to fight with herself for long and after another moment she takes the hand that is not playing with her clit and uses it to cup one of her breasts.

A less well endowed woman would not be able to do so but Sookie is able to tilt her breast and lower her head enough to be able to take her nipple in her mouth. She begins to suck on herself and the sight of it does indeed spur my passion. I take her hips in my hands and help her move and soon we are both falling over the edge. At the last minute I spring up and take the breast she is not sucking into my own mouth and bite down.

Sookie releases her breast and screams, fisting her hand into my hair and forcing her nipple farther into my mouth. "Eric!"

I pump into her just once more as her blood again fills my mouth and I come calling to the gods and screaming her name. I fall back on the bed and Sookie goes with me laying completely on top of me with her head in the crook of my neck. After a few minutes I feel a wetness on my neck and look down to see that she is crying.

"None of that now. What is the matter?" I ask softly. I want her to feel safe with me, but I must tread carefully with tears. If I indulge them to much she may think that I can be swayed by them and try to use them as a weapon against me. I find that I do not want to have to punish her, I do not know why, but I do not.

"I just, I, my Gran would be so ashamed of me. I've ruined myself." Ahh, I had wondered if she had truly accepted her fate or not and it appears that I now have my answer.

"It is of no consequence Sookie. You are not going to live a life where your virtue is of any good to you." She gasps at that and a few more tears escape. I dry them with the pad of my thumb and bring them to my mouth. The shock of seeing me taste her tears seems to stop her crying.

"I won't ever see her again will I?" She asks in a little voice.

"No." I say simply. She nods her head and for a moment I think she will cry again, but she does not. "Was your life so wonderful that you are so desperate to have it back?" She seems startled by the question for a moment and opens her mouth to give me a knee jerk answer, but then suddenly she closes it and seems to really think about what I've said. When she does open her mouth again I get a far more considered answer than I was expecting.

"It isn't that my life was so wonderful. My parents died years ago, and my brother died in the war. My Gran and I lost everything when the union army occupied our town and took everything of value with them when they left. They took all of our jewlry, all or our furniture, they took all of our food, what livestock and things they couldn't take they killed or destroyed so that we wouldn't have them after they left. After the war was over and the men still living returned my Gran decided to accept a marriage proposal for me from the son of one of our neighbors, but things have been so bad that it's been hard enough for Sam to feed himself let alone the both of us. So my Gran and I boarded up our farmhouse and came here to New Orleans. We don't have much, just a little apartment, and we spend all of our time making dresses for anyone who can pay. That was how Mr. Compton found me, I was delivering a dress late at night to a madam who runs a whore house becasue we desperately needed the money to buy food. So no, it's not that my life was so wondeful, it's more that my Gran needs me and without me I'm so terrified she'll starve, or die of grief. I'm all she has left." When she's done the tears have stopped but the hopeless look on her face is still there. I take her head in my hand and force her to look me in the eye.

"You must not torture yourself with this. That life is done for you, just as surely as if Compton had killed you that night. If you contintue to dwell on what you have lost you will lose site of the future. Do you understand me Sookie? I am older than you can possibly imagine and I am telling you now that you must close off that part of your heart and focus on the future. You know us now, you will never be set free. The people you knew, they are lost to you. Look ahead and take care of yourself. You are the only one you can help anymore." She stares back at me and I see at least for the moment that she accepts what I say, but I am not convinced. She has taken this all to well. It can only mean that she has not completely surrendered to it yet. However for the moment I chose to let it lie.

"How old are you?" She asks me. I feel my features harden, and I let my grip on her chin harden just a little bit too.

"That is not for you to know. Listen to me and heed me Sookie. Just as you must never ask for pleasure from those you will serve, so you must never ask them about their lives. Vampires are very private and you will not live long if you ask the wrong one even something as innocent as that. Do you understand." She looks slightly frightened for a moment but then she puts her hand on mine and I soften the grip I have on her little chin.

"I understand. I'm sorry." I brush my lips across her neck one last time and get up.

"Sleep now. In the morning Tara will come for you. You have behaved yourself well and so you will be permitted to eat with the others tomorrow and participate in some of the daytime activities that go on here." She nods that she has heard me and turns over. I look at her one last time before leaving. She is already falling asleep and she looks even more innocent and angelic.

I feel my face forming into a frown. I have been to soft with her. She has a power over me already that I cannot explain. Perhaps tomorrow I should not be alone with her. I decide that for tomorrow night we will have a very different lesson.


	8. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Sookie's POV

I awake again to the sound of Tara calling my name. I open my eyes and see another brilliant day outside. Tara holds out her hand to help me rise and when I do I'm immediately struck by the soreness I find there. It brings the memories of last night flooding back, but this time I try not to become lost in them. I can already feel how deeply and completely I'm falling under Eric's spell and if I am not careful the heart that he warned me to put away will be lost to him.

Instead I focus on not betraying my physical condtion to Tara. I can tell I'm not entirely sucessful though, when during my bath, I groan and I hear her laugh quietly in response. We make small talk again as she dresses me and I sense from her head that she guinely likes me and that she is in ignorance of the circumstances that brought me here. I decide again that befriending her is my best chance of making some sort of escape.

After I am dressed she leads me downstairs and I get to see the rest of the house for the first time since I arrived. I am on the fourth floor tucked into a corner and there is only one other bedroom on that level. The second and third floors however have five bedrooms each in them and so I surmise that there may be as many as ten other "students" here with me. The main floor holds a spacious parlor, a smaller sitting room, a library filled with books, and a room which has the door closed that Tara informs me is Appius's office. We make our way into the last room on this level which is the dining room. There seven people, four men and three women, are sitting to what must be a late lunch.

They all look up at me but none of them so much as open their mouths to greet me. Their inner voices are screaming at me though. They know that I am to be the pet of the Queen and that I am being trained by Eric. Both things make them intensely jealous of me and their thoughts turn unkind rather quickly. All through the meal I am assulted by thoughts about how I am neither pretty enough nor smart enough (though how they could know that when none of us have exchanged so much as a word I don't know) to be the pet of a Queen. I also hear from two of them that while they are being trained by other vampires Eric has played some part in their training as well and they are deeply unhappy that I am taking up so much of his time.

They are all here by choice it would seem and they are all deeply addicted to sex with vampires and being bitten. None of them has been brought here by anyone, they were all hand picked by the vampire Appius and they are hoping that when their training is complete they will be sold to wealthy vampires who will ensure their care in exchange for their vastly superiour sexual skills and the taste of their blood.

The meal is terribly uncomfortable and I hardly eat, but I try to keep my face nuetral through the whole thing. When it's over we are ushered by a tall man whose thoughts I have a hard time reading into the parlor. There is a piano at one end and a woman sitting at it. I am introduced to her as the new student and paired off with the male student who had been the odd one out until now. Today's day activity it seems is dancing instruction.

I love to dance, and I have not really been able to enjoy it since the war ruined all of our lives, and so I take great pleasure in learning the steps of the new dances in fashion and loose myself in the music and the rhythm. The instructor compliments me for being a quick study and of course it does nothing but irritate the other students here, but I no longer care. I am having so much fun that I barely notice the time. But when the clock strikes five the music stops mid dance and the instructor tells us all to return to our rooms.

Ten minutes later Tara comes hurrying in. She quickly undresses me and puts me into the beautiful lace and linnen nightgown and robe I wore the first night I was here. When I am redressed she sits me at the vanity and takes my hair down braiding it one long plait down my back and securing it with a matching lace ribbon. Once I am done she takes my hand and leads me out of my room to the one across from it.

"Tara what's going on?" I ask. Tara just shrugs at me.

"I don't know Sookie. Mr. Northman rose twenty minutes ago and asked me to change you and bring you here." With that the guard that watches my door unlocks this one and I walk in. The room is about as big as mine but the only things inside it are a bed twice as large as the one in my room and a comfortable looking chair which faces it.

Tara goes about lighting the lamps as I sit in the chair and wait. Ten minutes later the door unlocks again and in strides Eric. He looks as magnficient and beautiful as he has the last two nights. I am so overwhelmed by his beauty that it takes me a moment longer to notice that he is not alone. Coming in after him is another vampire, a woman. She is lovely too, with long light blond hair and lovely cornflower blue eyes. She is shorter than me by just a little bit and slim where I am curvaceous. I look up expectantly at Eric and wonder again why I have been moved and why we are not alone.

"Sookie, this is Pamela." He says without making any greeting to me. I stand and nod my head at the beautiful woman. "She will be helping us tonight." I stare up at him and confusion is clearly written all over my face. Eric takes a step closer to me and looks deep into my eyes. I see something behind them for just a moment and then he continues on in the same cold manner he has adopted since coming into the room.

"You are to be primarily the pet of a Queen. I can teach you many, many things, but I have not the equipment necessary to help you with everything, and so Pamela will assist me with your lesson tonight." It takes a moment for his meaning to penetrate. He is going to let this woman have sex with me! I start to tremble when this realization hits me, but Eric makes no move to comfort me as he has done in the last few nights when I became overwhelmed. Instead he looks down at me and orders me coldly to take off my clothes. I wonder fleetingly if I have done something to displease him and I want desperately to ask but I know that I cannot.

Instead I decide that I will do exactly as he wants and show him how much I have learned in so little time. If I can please him maybe he will be the same as he was last night and the night before. Truly I do not want to do this, but his coldness is all the catalyst I need. His is the only kindness I have had so far in this ordeal and I cannot lose it.

I take one last calming breath and unlace my robe hanging it on a hook on the wall and then slip out of my nightgown hanging it as well. My back is to the two vampires in the room and so I steady myself and turn around, naked and exposed to both of them. When I turn I see that Eric, still fully clothed, has taken the chair that faces the bed and the woman named Pamela is standing at the foot of it.

"Go to Pamela, Sookie," he says, and his tone brokes no refusal. I make my way to the pretty vampire and find her naked as well. Now that she is unclothed I can see that her body is quite lovely. Her breasts are smaller than mine, but high, and rounded. Her waist is impossibly small and her hips flair out gently. I feel my cheeks burning as I notice the delicate hairs at the juncture of her legs and find that they are just a shade darker than the ones on her head. As I have been looking at her so Pamela has been looking at me and I bring my eyes back up to hers just in time to see her fangs snick down. She smiles at me and the smile is not unkind, but I can tell that she is looking at me with that same hungry look all the others have.

"Come closer Sookie." She commands and I obey instantly. "You have never touched another woman?" I shake my head no, and I hear her laugh softly. "You may decide you like it better than touching a man." She looks up at me and I try to keep myself calm. I know practically nothing, but I doubt that anything in this world could be as good as touching Eric and being touched by him in return.

"Pamela you may begin when you are ready," I hear Eric tell her. Pamela nods but keeps her eyes on me.

"I will touch you Sookie, and you will mimic my touch on me. Do you understand?" I nod again and we begin. Pamela takes her hand and carresses my cheek and my jaw, then she stops and allows me to do the same to her. The feel of her skin is like silk and to my suprise it is pleasant to touch. What seems to be the most enjoyable though is the fact that Eric is watching us. I don't think that I could possibly work up the courage to do this if he were not here, but knowing that he is watching, that he will be happy if I perform well, it makes all the difference.

Pamela next brings her hand to the vein in my throat and caresses from my ear to my shoulder, and I reciprocate. My breath hitches at her next touch though. She brings both of her hands up and gently cups my breasts, running the pads of her thumbs over my nipples. The feeling of her touching me there as Eric watches produces a sharp stabbing sensation that goes all the way to the juncture between my legs. Suddenly I feel myself growing wet and I have to catch my breath as I know that it's my turn to touch her.

My hands shake slightly as I bring them to her tiny, perfect breasts and take hold of them gently. Pam gives a little sigh as my fingers graze her nipples. Both of us are standing now with our arms out, our hands cupping each others breasts. Pamela runs one hand down over my stomach and between my legs. I cry out when I feel her playing with my nub. It takes me a moment to gather my wits, but then I do the same to her. When my hand comes in contact with her sex I feel another electric jolt. It seems so strange to be touching something that feels so much like me but is not. We work each other slowly as Pamela continues to pinch and play with my nipple and I do the same to her.

After a few minutes we are both sighing softly and I chance a look over to Eric. He is watching us intently, his fangs down, and his eyes wide. I can see his member clearly straining his pants and his hands are fisted on the arms of the chair, but otherwise he is completely still. He seems to be hanging on Pamela's next moves.

I cry out as I feel Pamela's fingers invade me and begin to pump me as her thumb continues to work my nub. I take a steadying breath and prepare to do the same to her. The sensation of invading her like this is unlike anything I have experienced and we stand there for only a moment more before we each reach our peak. Pamela shudders slightly and I give a little cry. When it is done, she takes the fingers of the hand that had been inside me and brings them to her mouth tasting them. My eyes widen as I watch her lick my essense from her fingers. When she is done she gives a small gesture to me and I realize that I am expected to do the same.

I slowly bring my wet hand to my mouth. I smell her essence very clearly on them and the smell is sharp but not unpleasant. I hold my fingers in front of my mouth and taste them and find that the taste is quite different from the taste of Eric but pleasing all the same. As I finish cleaning my last finger Eric's voice breaks through the silence.

"Sookie lay down along the width of the bed." I glance at him and see a wild look in his eyes. I don't dare refuse and so I walk to the side of the bed and lay down as he instructed, my body parrallel to the pillows so that from his chair Eric can see me in profile. "Spread your legs Sookie." He commands and my body responds instantaneously. Pamela comes up in front of me at that moment.

"I will show you what you must do. When I am done you will do it to me in return." I nod my head and lay back as Pamela crawls between my legs and lays down on top of me. I feel her lips descend on mine and her tongue invade my mouth. Her lips are impossibly soft and her tongue delicate and sweet. I taste the little bit of me that she sucked off of her fingers and feel her fangs grazing my lips. I moan softly as I feel her breasts rub against mine and her hands caressing my sides. We kiss for a long time and then her head begins to decend lower. One hand begins to work me again, massaging my nub and invading my entrance as she brings her mouth down to my breasts. She licks and sucks at the entire globe, making me moan and writhe, before she finally takes mercy on me and takes the nipple into her mouth.

I cry out as she sucks on my breasts and pumps her fingers in and out of my wetness, and as I do I turn my head and see Eric. He has moved to the edge of the seat now and watches intently as Pamela lowers her head even further until her face is level with my sex. She takes one deep inhale and then begins to lick and suck at me. Depsite the fact that she is smaller and softer than Eric her tongue feels much like his and the sensation of her eating me and pumping me with her hand causes the same reaction. I writhe and moan, and bring my hands to my breasts pinching my nipples for added stimulation. The whole while I stare at Eric and when I reach my peak it's his name that I call out.

Before I can come down from my high Pamela is again kissing me and I lick my essense off of her lips and moan into her mouth. I twine my arms around her this time and crush my breasts against hers. Instead of making me tired the beautiful pleasure has only made me deseperate for more and so I rub our bodies together trying to get as much friction as possible. Pamela grinds her pelvis against mine and fists her hands into my hair forcing my mouth to stay on hers. Suddenly through the haze I hear Eric's commanding voice once more.

"Pamela lay down on the pillows." Pamela lays down lengthwise her head on the pillows and spreads her legs. "Sookie it's your turn." Eric's voice is darker and rougher than I've ever heard it and I give him one last long look before climbing between Pamela's legs and repeating her actions.


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: I wanted to thank everyone again who has reviewed my story, put it in their favorties, and put it on alert. It keeps me writing! These chapters and the next few after them will probalby be the most intensly mature of the story and so I wanted to give warning yet again!_

_I hope you enjoy._

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Eric's POV

It's all I can do to sit still and watch the scene before me unfolding. The sight of my beautiful child kissing Sookie, sucking on her breasts, eating her lucious sex, it was almost to much to bare. I find myself both extremely turned on and extremely jealous all at once. Arroused beyond belief by the sight of the two most beautiful woman in the world licking and sucking and fucking each other in front of me, but also insanely jealous at Sookie's wanton responses.

I know that I should be happy that she is apparently as aroused by woman as she is by men. It means she will do well as the blood slave of the Queen, but that thought is to rational for the dark emotions that over take it. Instead I find myself utterly upset. I almost stop the whole thing until, as Pamela is devoring Sookie's delicious little pussy, Sookie looks over at me with eyes filled with passion and begins playing with her breasts. Our eyes lock and suddenly I realize that though she experiencing pleasure at Pamela's touch, she is performing for me.

Suddenly I am overcome by a strong wave of possesiveness. It's not a new emotion to a vampire as old as I am, but in this context it is strange. I have never felt anything for any of the humans I have trained. I knew they would go on to be someone else's pets and I enjoyed the fruits of my labor until that time and then happily moved on to the next. But with Sookie, the thought of the Queen, or Andre, or any of the nameless, faceless vampires the Queen will share her with, touching her drives me insane. I can only bare Pamela touching her because Pamela is my child.

Suddenly Sookie comes and it's my name that falls from her lips. Hearing it from her now, even when someone else brought her to it, makes my head swim and my poor cock strain against my pants even farther. I command Pamela to lay with her head on the pillows so that I will not have to see Sookie eating her. Instead this new position puts Sookie's naked, glistening sex directly in my line of site and I watch it and her sweet little bottom move as she goes to her elbows and knees, lowers her head, and begins to taste my Pamela. I hear Pamela moaning her pleasure and I see her fist her hand into Sookie's hair, forcing Sookie's face farther into her dripping folds. Sookie gives an answering moan and I lose it. Without her eyes on mine the sound of her enjoying the taste of Pamela is to much for me. I rise from the chair and drag my pants down and off. I do not bother with the shirt, that's just wasted time.

In one swift motion I climb onto the bed behind Sookie and impale her swiftly on my cock. Pamela opens her eyes for one brief moment and raises an eyebrow at me, but I look at her coldly and she decides to just play along. Sookie, gives a strangled cry and calls my name into Pamela's sex, but she never stops her minstrations, continuing to lick and suck Pamela with her tongue, and pump her with her fingers, even as I pump Sookie with my cock. I bring my hand around and start to work Sookie's nub and it's only a short while before we all climax together.

Pamela screams incoherently and bucks her hips into Sookie's face, Sookie rears back pushing her sex farther onto my emptying cock, and I fall forward slightly catching myself and holding myself up on my hands which bracket Sookie. After a moment I climb off of the bed and pick up my pants. Sookie rolls to the side and lays beside Pamela. Both women look utterly fucked and I find myself growing hard again at the sight.

"Where are you going Eric?" Pamela cocks an eyebrow at me and in a moment I make my decision, throwing my pants back on the floor and sending my shirt to join it, I crawl back up the bed and inbetween the two women. I take Pamela by the back of her head and haul her up for a deep kiss as Sookie watches. Our fangs scrape against each other and we both moan. When I release her I turn to Sookie and do the same. Sookie opens her mouth allowing me in and runs her tongue along my fangs.

Sookie and I break our kiss and she lowers herself down on the bed so that she can take my cock in her mouth. As she works me I take Pamela in another passionate kiss and then lower my head to her tiny pert little nipples. Sookie sucks at my cock for a long while as I suck at Pamela's breasts and then I put my hand on Sookie's head and bring her back up. I lower my head in between Pamela's legs and begin to lick at her and run my fingers along her entrance. I look up at Sookie, who seems for a moment entranced, but then lowers her head to Pamela's breasts and begins to suck on them. Pamela in turn brings her hands down, one to my head to keep my face in her folds, and the other to Sookie's sex to rub her clit and dip her fingers into her entrance. The three of us moan and move on the bed as one. After a few minutes I hear first Sookie and then Pamela come and both women again lie back and recover.

After a moment I lie down between them as well. I take Pamela by the hips and mount her on my cock. She takes me in all at once and begins to move on me. I turn to Sookie then and take her hand.

"Sit with your sex on my face little one, facing Pamela." I command. I did not mean to call her that in front of Pamela but really Pamela seems far to occupied with other things to be paying much attention. Sookie's eyes widden and I see that familiar blush but she obeys without protest. She sits on my face and I again have the pleasure of tasting the both of us on her. As Pamela bounces on my cock I eat Sookie like a starving man and feel them both lean forward. They kiss each other passionately and fondle each others breasts, and again the cliff isn't far for any of us. Sookie reaches down and rubs Pamela's clit as she bounces on me and within a moment we are all coming again.

When it's done I get up, take my clothes and Sookie's, and pick Sookie up from the bed. Pamela raises her eyebrow at me once more but says nothing as I carry Sookie, both of us still naked, from this room back into her own, leaving Pamela to recover alone.

When we return to Sookie's room I lay her gently on the bed. She looks up at me with eyes wide and full of worry.

"Did I please you? Did I do it all well?" It's everything I can do not to take her in my arms, kiss her beautiful lips, and tell her that though she was magnificent, if she ever touches anyone except me like that again I am like to kill her in a jealous rage. Instead I stroke her hair softly and smile with as much tenderness as I dare.

"You were magnificent. I believe you may often be asked to please both her Majesty and her Majesty's child Andre at the same time. If you do with them as you did with Pamela and I they will be nothing but pleased." I hate saying the words even as they are coming out of my mouth, but I know I must. I must remind both of us that she is not mine. I begin to walk away but her hand catches mine. I turn back and I see the pleading in her look. She knows she dare not ask, but she hopes that I will know what she wants and give in. I should not, I should leave now and think nothing about her for the rest of the night, but after the emotions that have swirled around me all night, after having to watch her with Pamela I cannot. I want her! I want her all to myself.

Mistake though I know it to be I climb under the covers with her, take her into my arms and make love to her for the rest of the night. As we kiss and touch and caress we call out for only each other, and though I know I do us both no good by it, I allow us to have this little fantasy for just one night. I allow us both to believe that she is mine and that I am hers and that what we do is for no other reason than the pleasure it brings to us both.


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: Thank you again to everyone who's reviewed, put the story on alert, and in their favorties. You all Rock! So more smut and a little plot too! I hope you enjoy._

_Disclaimer: don't own them ;)_

Sookie's POV

When I wake the next morning I have never felt so wonderful. The day outside is rainy and gray but it can't bring me down. I think back to the events of last night and let myself be utterly swept away by them. I could never have dreamed that I would ever do such things with another woman, let alone with a woman and a man at the same time. I was so scared at first but when I remember kissing Pamela, our tongues intertwined and our breasts crushed against each other as we both sat astride Eric, I am instantly wet and throbbing.

This time I let my hands wander down and play with myself as I recall everything that happened. Erotic as my experience with Pamela was it isn't what makes me so happy this morning. What has made me so happy is everything that happened when Eric brought me back here to my room. I was so scared that despite everything I had displeased him and I begged him with my eyes to give me some comfort, some reassurance that he was happy with me. He took mercy on me when I know he meant to be cold and distant. He climbed into this very bed with me, took me in his arms, and made love to me for hours.

The things we've done on the other nights we've been together, as wonderful as they were, were only physical. Last night was not. I felt him, felt his attachment to me, and I showed him mine to him. He took me in all the ways that he has shown me over the past few days but each of them felt different, more wonderful, more pleasuarable, more complete.

I feel myself climax as I think back on the moment last night when, drunk with our passion, Eric took my face in his hands, looked deep into my eyes, and called my name as though it were a benediction to God as he fell over the edge. I cry out now and it's Eric's name that falls from my lips. I fill the single word with every ounce of my love for him.

My eyes pop open when I digest the thought that finally brought my pleasure. Love. Can that be? I have only known him for four days, I am his prisoner here, he is training me to perform all of these sordid acts with other people, countless other people if I am to believe what he tells me. How can I possibly ascribe a word like love to what has happened to me here with him?

And yet I know it to be true. I love him. I hear the first sob break from my throat. I do, I love him. I would stay here with him for the rest of my life, I would do anything he asked me to, with anyone he asked me to if only he would tell me he loved me every night. And yet even though we made love last night he was clear that our lesson was necessary because he is training me to be the sexual slave of two other vampires. Two vampires who will want me to do those things that I did with Pamela and Eric to them all the time.

I begin to cry in earnest at this thought. No I have to stop thinking like this. I have to get out of here. I have to find a way. I cannot stay here, I cannot let myself love Eric if it means being passed from one vampire to another. I cannot live like this. The thought of any of it without him is revolting!

Just as I am working myself into a frenzy Tara enters the room. She comes over to me at once and sits down on the bed next to me.

"Sookie, what's the matter?" She is genuinely concerned and I take my chance and tell her the truth. I tell her how I came to be here and that I am being held against my will. I beg her to help me. Tara is stunned, but she thinks for a long moment and then comes up with an idea. "There is no way out of here Sookie, but perhaps I can help you get a message to your family. Tomorrow afternoon when I bring you clean clothes I'll bring a pen and a peice of paper with me. When I go shopping Saturday I will bring the message to whomever you please. Maybe they can find a way to get you out." It's more than I could have ever asked for and I thank Tara profusely.

After that I beg her to bring me dinner in my room. I can't bare to sit downstairs with the other "students" and hear what they are thinking about me. Tara agrees and leaves shortly returning with a tray for me. We go through the routine that we went through the first two days I was here. I eat while Tara brushes my hair. Then she helps me bathe and dress. Since I am not going downstairs Tara has brought me a fresh nightgown and robe in a lovely red color, I dress quickly and then am left to myself.

I pick up another book from the pile Tara left for me and try to concentrate on it, but it's no use. I am so wound up thinking about getting a message to my Gran and so anxious for the sun to set so that I can see Eric, though I know that I should not be, that I never get passed the first page.

Hours later I am still staring at that page as the door to my room is unlocked and Eric enters. When I look up at him he is alone, and I breath a small sigh of relief at that. Whatever it is that we will do tonight I am glad it will be just the two of us. Eric stands just inside the room for a long time just looking at me. Then without a word he opens his arms and I feel myself bolt up right and run into them. He catches me in a deep kiss and I wrap my arms around his neck and welcome him into my mouth.

"Good evening little one." He says softly in between kisses. I smile into his lips.

"Eric," We kiss over and over again until finally he breaks away from me slightly and holds me at arms length looking me up and down. I see a frown cross his face and he suddenly drops his arms.

"Sit Sookie." He motions to the sofa and I sit down on it. Eric kneels in front of me and I see sorrow in his eyes. "Little one, what happened last night..." He trails off and I know what he will say but I cannot bare to hear it. So instead I interject.

"I thought you said you were pleased with me. Did I not do well with Pamela?" I ask sounding pouty. Eric looks at me and I see annoyance cross his face. We have not known each other long, but apparently he has me pretty much figured out.

"You know very well this conversation is not about your lesson last night, but the...things... that happened afterward." I lower my eyes to the ground. Preparing myself for the worst.

"You think it was a mistake, you do not really care for me." I say simply, my eyes still on the carpet. I hear Eric let out a frustrated sigh. He takes my chin in his hand and tilts my head back up to look at him.

"I cannot care for you, and you would be wise to learn not to care for anyone at all from now on. Emotions are dangerous and they could get us both killed. You are the property of the Queen of Louisanna, she has sent you here to learn from me. If you and I displease her she will kill you and she will have my maker kill me. Do you understand that? This is serious Sookie, this is not some trite romance novel." I look him in the eye and I know that he's right. I should nod my head and we should get on with our lesson for tonight. I should let us both pretend that there is nothing between us, but I cannot.

"And yet I do care for you, I love you. Even if you send me to the Queen of Louisanna tonight I will still love you. And I know after last night that you love me to." Eric rears back stunned. His eyes grow wide and for one brief moment I am terrified that all this has been in my head. That what I have felt has been nothing more than my imagination. Eric pulls me up off the couch and stands me infront of him again.

"Vampires, do not love. You are my job. Perhaps I have been to lenient with you. You were a virgin after all, and are probably filled with silly romantic notions about love." His words sting deeply. I have never been filled with romantic notions about love. I have seen what loving Mr. Compton has reduced poor Mrs. Caroline to since his "death", and I have agreed myself to marry a man I like and respect but do not love. No, what has come over me here with him is because of him, because of this strange thing between us, it hasn't been manufactured by silly school girl fantasies. Still I know there is nothing to be gained by arguing with him. For many, no doubt, wise and correct reasons he is not willing to admit it. And perhaps that is best. If he told me he loved me too I doubt I would have the courage to leave here, as I must.

"Then we should no doubt get on with my lesson." I say coldly. Eric looks down at me with stormy blue eyes for one last moment and then I see an emotionless mask come over his features. Without another word he begins to undress and I do the same. When we are both naked he points to the bed and we climb in from opposite sides to meet in the middle.

"You will be asked in your future life to engage in any number of acts which no doubt your innocence has not prepared you for. Tonight I will show you one of them." He reaches down with his hand and begins to caress my sex. In just four nights it has become conditioned to his touch and I feel myself moisten immediately. Eric inserts two fingers inside of me and works me with his thumb in a now familiar but no less exquisite rhythm. I let my head fall back on the pillows and Eric goes up on one elbow, looking down at me as he plays with me. When I am thoroughly wet he removes his hand and paints one of my nipples with my own wetness. Then he leans down and sucks it clean. His hand goes down again collecting more and painting my other nipple with it. This time he gestures for me to clean it away myself. I watch him as I do, knowing that for some reason he adores watching me lick and suck my own breasts.

When that nipple is clean as well he pushes my legs farther apart and climbs between them. Without any further preamble he plunges his member inside of me and I groan loudly. Our eyes lock and in this moment I know, no matter what either of us says or does, this thing between us is real, it's no figment of my silly no longer virginal imagination. Eric pumps into me in a strong almost rough rhythm for a few minutes and then he takes me by the hips and turns me over.

I go up on my hands and knees as he's taught me and feel him holding me by my hips as he plunges deeper and harder. I reach down and work my own nub, keeping my balance with my other hand and it's only a matter of moments before I climax. I cry out and hear Eric follow me. But when we are done he does not move, and his hands on my hips keep me from collapsing onto the bed as I would have.

After a short moment I feel him withdraw from me and feel one of his hands leave my hips and travel to my soaking wet entrance, now coated in both my desire and his essense. He swirls his fingers around getting them very, very wet and slides them slightly upwards and between the cheeks of my bottom. I gasp when I realize that he is playing with the other opening there.

"Vampires adore sex in all it's forms and as the slave of a Queen you will be required to perform quite naturally acts that other humans might balk from." He pets my other opening again swirling his finger around it. I can't move, I can't breath, he cannot mean what I think he means.

"What are you going to do to me?" I ask, the terror apparent in my voice. I hear him chuckle softly and I know he has chosen this lesson for tonight to show me exactly how much he supposedly does not care for me.

"I am going to fuck you here." The tip of his finger dips into me and I cry out in shock. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to pretend this is not happening. "You must relax Sookie, or there will be considerable pain." The warning does nothing to alliviate my fear, but I try very hard to make my body relax. This will happen whether I want it to or not, I must just get through it. "If you do not fight it, it can be intensly pleasurable Sookie. Have I hurt you or misused you yet?" He asks softly his other hand coming around and beginning to work my nub. I try to focus on the feeling of his fingers there on my clit and not on the ones between my cheeks.

"No", I say, "I've loved everything we've done just as you said I would." I say it softly and I can hear the shame in my voice both for what I've allowed myself to particpate in, and most especially for the pleasure I've derived from it. He rubs my nub even harder and I cry out in that shameful pleasure once more.

"You will love this as well, once you are used to it." With that he takes the little finger that has been playing with me and inserts it all the way into me. I try to relax, I try to go limp but it burns and I hear myself cry out in shock. After a moment though the pain subsides and I realize that it does feel good, very, very good! I begin to wiggle my hips and push back into his finger and I hear him chuckle deep and low behind me.

"Good Sookie, you're beginning to understand." I'm not sure if he is telling me I understand the pleasure of this act, which I am beginning to, or if he means that I understand the nature of the relationship between us, but I just nod and allow him to continue working me. After another minute he removes his finger from my rear opening and brings his hand down into my wetness again gathering more. When he returns he inserts two fingers into me and I cry out again, but this time I don't panic, knowing that when the sting subsides the pleasure will begin again. He does this twice more until he has managed to get four fingers inside of me. This time he pumps me harder and pinches my nub, I bring a hand to my breasts and pinch them as well and before another minute has passed I'm reaching and unbelievable hight of pleasure. I scream out his name and fall over the cliff for what seems like an eternity.

When I come to again I am on my elbows and knees, my head resting on the bed and Eric is still behind me. I feel him licking my sex and it feels divine. I begin to push back into his face, and I hear him moan. A gush of wetness rushes out of me at the utterly erotic sounds he's making and I feel him rear up and enter me. I cry out and buck back against him as he rides me. But just when it feels as though I will reach my peak again he pulls out. Without warning or even time to process what is happening I feel him bring his manhood, now coated in my wetness, to my other opening and push in.

No amount of preperation could have readied me for the feeling of his huge member there, and I cry out in shock, and in pain, but he is relentless, pumping in and out of the too tight space with abandon. After a few minutes the pain lessens slightly and I begin to feel the pleasure too. The feeling is intense and different from the pleasure I felt at his fingers. This is a sensation somewhere between pleasure and pain which leaves it impossible to distinguish which your are feeling. Every pull out is exquisite and every push in painful, but after a few minutes it brings me to a place I have never known before. I loose myself in the intense physical feelings and begin to cry out. Eric too seems lost in them and he pushes forward a little too forcefully and my knees collapse from under me. Suddenly I am flat on my stomach on the bed and Eric is covering me entirely.

He takes my hands in his own and holds them above our heads for leverage and continues to plunge into me. He's chanting incoherently now, but I hear my name every once and a while and I join him in the mindless noises. I begin to push my hips into the bed and then back into him causing my clit to rub against the mattress during every down stroke. That and the sensation of him taking me and the knowledge of the very forbidden entrance he is using causes me to come and the moment I cry out my release Eric follows, sinking his fangs into the back of my shoulder at the same time.


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Eric's POV

The feelings are so intense I cannot block them out and I start to call out to her in my native tongue; feeling that if I cannot contain the words of love and devotion that are falling from my mouth, it would be best if no one else understood them.

She was right of course. I did not truly realize what the emotion was until she named it, but when she said it I knew it to be true. Why else would I be so gentle with her when I have never given the others a second thought? Why else would I have been so jealous of Pamela last night? Why else would I have given in last night and stayed with her afterwards, and why else would I have allowed the scene that took place when I entered tonight? I love her. I will get us both killed if I allow it to go on though. I meant what I said to her. Emotions are dangerous and she is my job.

That's why I chose the lesson I did tonight. I could have taught her something else, but when she declared her feelings for me and demanded my declaration in return I knew I had to put a barrier between us or she would end up drained and I would end a pile of ash with a wooden stake in the middle.

But it seems that my lesson in the debauched nature of vampires has backfired on me. Instead of reinforcing the nature of our relationship as teacher and student or master and slave I have found yet another act that hightened by what I feel for her, will never be the same with anyone else ever again.

I know that I scared her when I told her what would happen here tonight but, as she has been on ever other night, she was magnficent. Fearless and feral, deeply passionate, and able to find pleasure in what might have frightened another. I tried to perpare her only as much as necessary, wanting this act to startle her and perhaps even hurt a little bit. Anything that would change her view of me from lover to master, but it seems that, try though I might, I will never be able to put up a facade between us. Instead I found myself utterly consumed by the passion between us, unbelievably proud of her strength, and completely overwhelmed by the pleasure of her body beneath me.

Now as we lay here, her body still underneath mine, my cock still burried to the hilt in her tight, sweet little ass all I can think is that I want her again. I need her right now. The desire to take her perfect little bottom again is almost overwhelming, but I do not. I gave into her last night when I should not have, if I do so again, how will I keep from telling her the truth, and once I admit it to her there's no going back. No, I am a vampire, I am over eight hundred years old, mastery over my own wants and desires was one of the first lessons my maker ever taught me, by completely denying me the right to them. I will not let a simple human girl rule me this way.

I pull out of her body slowly not wishing to hurt her and I hear her groan. She will be soar tomorrow if she is not already. Sookie turns over and looks up at me. I want to stroke her hair, kiss her lips, tell her how absolutely enthralling she is and how being with her is...right, perfect. Instead I take a deep calming breath, turn picking up my clothes, and leave. As the door locks behind me I hear her quiet sobs but I do not allow myself to be swayed by them. This is for the best.

I make my way down to the library and sit in front of the fire there. After a few moments I hear the door open and I do not need to look up to know that it is Appius.

"Master," I say by way of greeting, my eyes never leaving the fire. Appius sits in the chair next to mine and joins me in my contemplation of the flames.

"How goes it with the Queen's new toy?" His question sounds casual and of course he has every reason to be curious since our sucess or failure with the girl will mean the difference between this little venture prospering and all of us being chained in silver for a decade or two, but there is something to the tone of his voice that makes me cautious.

"She is quite talented. I believe that she will turn out well." I keep my voice neutral and continue to stare into the fire, but I can feel my inner turmoil turn to unease as I answer.

"I spoke to Pamela last night, I believe you are quite taken with the girl." Again it's said causually but there can be no doubt what he means. I turn to him now and find him looking at me.

"I am nothing of the sort." Appius chuckles, it's not a sound I've ever liked.

"Pamela attempted to tell me that as well, but I've always known when she was hiding something, and she never hides anything unless it's to protect you. Would you like to tell me what's going on or not?" I hear the edge in his voice and despite my eight hundred years on this earth I feel a frision of fear. My maker is hundreds of years older than me and in all the time he has dwelt upon this earth compassion and mercy are two emotions he has never experienced. If I do not convince him that Sookie is business as usual I won't have to wonder who will be wielding the stake that ends me.

"I will not lie, training her is quite pleasant. Her body is beautiful, her responses quite passionate, and her blood exquisite. She is the most pleasant assignment I have had in a long time. But there is nothing beyond that. She is human, when she is gone I will train another and another and I will not think on her again." Appius gives me one hard look but then nods as though he's satisfied. I try not to betray my inner relief at this.

"Good. Antony Morgaine comes tomorrow all the way from England. He has expressed an interest in looking over our wears and I believe if we play things right he may choose to purchase one of the girls. I think either Belina or Melanie would be to his liking. To that end I intend to let him look over the girls tomorrow evening when he arrives. Clancy will of course help display Melanie since he has trained her, but I do not think it fitting that I should display Belina even if I have trained her. I would like you to do it instead." He watches my face intently for a reaction and I realize that this is my real test. If I betray even the slightest bit of hesitation he will ascribe it to my attachment to Sookie. So I do what I must to keep us both safe.

"You honor me Master. If I might suggest, I think that the other's should be brought down to watch as well. They will all be in this situation at one time or another and it will benefit them to see what will happen and how they must behave." Appius smiles widely at me and I see his fangs decend. For now it seems both Sookie and I safe.

"Excellent Eric. As always your keen mind does us both credit. Make all the arrangements necessary and have everyone assembled in the drawing room at 9:00 pm tomorrow. Now, I think I will go and attend to Belina. After all I do not want her disappointing me tomorrow night." He chuckles again and gets up to leave without further adieu.

After speaking to the night maids and instructing them on what must be done tomorrow when they arrive I turn to go downstairs into the underground part of the house and my chamber, but before I even have a chance to think about it I find myself climbing the stairs to Sookie's room instead. It's madness to do so after so narrowly convincing Appius of my disinterest, but I find that I cannot help myself. I must see her if even just for a few minutes.

The guard at Sookie's door bows to me as usual and if he is suprised to see me again he gives no indication. Unlocking the door he opens it for me and steps aside. When I enter I see sookie sitting on the floor infront of the fire place. She has redoned her red nightgown and robe and let her hair fall loose. The fire catches the strands and gives the illusion of a golden aura all around her body. It is utterly exquisite and I find myself unable to utter a word as I am drawn closer to her by the nameless thing between us.

I hear the door close behind me but Sookie still makes no move to acknowledge my presense. I sit down beside her and though she does not look at me or speak to me she brings herself flush against my side and lays her head on my shoulder. Without even realizing it I put my arm around her, holding her body to the curve of mine and laying my own head on top of hers, rubbing my cheek into her sweet smelling hair.

We stay like that for a long time, staring into the flames and saying nothing as though if we do not move and do not speak than all the unpleasant truths that surround us do not really exist. She is not an innocent taken against her will and I am not her captor. She is not the property of another and I will never be forced to give her up. We are simply each other's, she is mine and I am hers and we are the only two people in the world. After a time though she is the one to break the spell.

"You came back, why?" I rub my cheek into her hair again and plant a small kiss to the crown of her head.

"There is something I must tell you about tomorrow, but I also wanted to check on you. Does it hurt very much?" I know I should not ask, but I also know in this moment that though I will never say the words, we are past the pretense that nothing exists between us. She continues to stare into the fire but I see her mouth form into a small smile and one of her little hands comes up to caress my chest where I left the first few buttons of my shirt undone.

"Only a little, but it's a pleasant sort of soreness. My teacher was very demanding tonight, but he brought me pleasure I never could have dreamed existed." I pull her tighter against me at that and kiss my way down her hair to her ear, to her cheek, and then her jaw. I hear her sigh deeply and feel her other arm come up around my back. We are holding each other tightly now and I wish more than anything that this night would never end.

"You were crying when I left." I say, my voice sounding foreign to me so soft and full of concern. I hear her laugh a tiny little laugh that sounds almost like a bell tinkling.

"I cried because you left, not because you hurt me." At that I take her chin in my hand and turn her face to mine. Her eyes are huge, liquid, and blue, so deep that if I could I would drown in them. So much naked love is there on her face and I know that could I see mine right now it would be no different. I lean down slowly and place a gentle kiss on her lips. When we part again I feel the anguish inside of me.

"This cannot be between us little one." Her face turns hard and determined and I know that unlike earlier she will not let me deny the truth this time.

"It already is." What more can I say? There is no truthful refute to what she has said. Instead I nod at her and turn back to the fire.

"Which makes what I must tell you now that much harder." I feel her tense beside me, readying herself for the unknown. What I have to say is probably much better than any number of things she must fear, but the mear thought of it makes me sick anyway.

"Tell me." I take her hand in my own and play with the delicate little veins that run just under the surface of the back of it.

"Tomorrow night a vampire from Europe, a Mr. Morgaine, will arrive. He desires to purchase one of the girls. Appius believes that either Melanie or Belina will be most suitable for him. He is arranging a showing and a demonstration of their talents so that Mr. Morgaine can make the most...informed decision possible. Appius has himself trained Belina, but as Master here he does not think it fitting that he should participate in the demonstration. He has asked me to help show her off." I stop, taking a deep calming breath, and then tell her the rest. " Appius questioned me tonight about you. He is suspicious of the depth of my attachment to you. In order to assure him that no such attachment exsists, I suggested that all the students be brought to watch tomorrows entertainments..." I trail off not wanting to spell it out any farther or even think about what will happen tomorrow. I see a single tear streak down Sookie's face.

"What you really mean is that you will have sex with this girl tomorrow for Mr. Morgaine's entertainment and I will be expected to watch."

"Yes, that is what I really mean." She just nods and continues to stare into the fire, her eyes glisten with tears but she does not let anymore fall.

"Will you enjoy it?" She asks after a time, and her voice is so small and so filled with sadness that it overwhelms me. I take her cheek in my hand and turn her face to mine. I lean down until our faces are close enough for us to kiss, but I do not, instead I stare deeply into her eyes so she can see the truth there.

"Five days ago, yes I would have. I would have enjoyed fucking her very much. But now...after you leave I fear that I will never take joy in anything else again. I want only you, I desire only you." With that I slant my mouth across hers and take her into my arms, pulling her into my lap. Sookie gives a strangled little cry and devours my mouth, parting my lips with her tongue and running them over my fangs. After a long moment we break apart so she can breath and I see the wild desire in her eyes.

"Let me please you. Show me what will please you more than anything else. I want you to think only of this, of us when you're with her tomorrow!" Her voice is filled with urgency and it makes me instantly and completely hard. I stand and give her my hand to help her up. When she's standing I gently remove her robe and nightgown so that she is gloriously naked in front of me. She is so beautiful and I am utterly powerless to stop myself from taking her. I pick her up and carry her to the bed, gently laying her down.

"Lay in the middle of the bed little one," I command her softly. I see her smile a dark smile full of anticipation and lust and suddenly thoughts of tomorrow flee my mind and all I can think of is what we will do together right now.


	12. Chapter 12

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Sookie's POV

I lay in the middle of the bed as Eric instructed me and watch as he makes his way around the bed. Eric strips off his clothes slowly building my anticipation for what will come with each button that comes undone and each peice of his magnificent body that's revealed. I'm so desperate for him I can barely think.

Which is good, because I refuse to think about tomorrow. I refuse to think about watching the man I love take another woman while I am required to watch in bored silence. I won't let myself feel the pain of that right now, instead I wait with baited breath to see what new, blissful thing he will teach me. I concentrate on pleasing him so well that he will think of nothing but me even when he is with her. By the time Eric finishes undressing I'm already dripping wet and ready for him, but to my suprise he doesn't join me on the bed. Instead he walks over to the small night table by the side of the bed and opens the drawer there. From the drawer he removes several long scarves and a strange cylindrical object covered in leather.

"Give me your hand Sookie," He whispers softly and I reach out to him. To my utter shock he takes my hand at the wrist and ties it with one of the scarves and then ties the scarf to the post of the bed. He walks around the bed and repeats the process on my other wrist and both of my ankles until I am bound by all four limbs. When he's done he lays the last scarf over my eyes and ties it firmly.

"Eric," I whisper both scared and arroused all at once. I feel his hand caress my cheek and then a moment later I feel the bed dip between my legs.

"Do you know why I've done this Sookie?" He asks, his voice dark and thick. It makes my head swim and my sex drip. I shake my head pulling against the restraints slightly. They are not tight enough to hurt me but I am utterly helpless and immobile. "Like this you cannot do any of the work. What I want tonight, what will please me more than anything else is to bring you pleasure. Tomorrow when I must let that woman touch me I will be thinking of this and I want you to think of it too. I want you to know that you are the only being I have ever wished to please even above myself, to bring you pleasure brings my own." I moan at his words utterly undone.

Eric begins by running his hands up and down my legs and thighs, caressing the outsides of them softly but never venturing to my inner thighs or my juncture. After a few minutes he lets his hands wander to my sides and along the outer edges of my breasts. The sensation of his hands on me but never touching where I want him to makes me crazy with need.

"Eric," I beg him, without actually saying the words. He laughs softly and I feel his mouth come down on the inside of my knee. I moan as his mouth travels farther up my thigh and then stops.

"Is this were you want me little one?" I feel his breath on my sex but nothing more.

"Yes, oh yes, God YES!" I plead trying to buck my hips despite the restraints. After a moment I feel something lightly brushing through the curls at my juncture, but it isn't Eric's fingers, or mouth, or member.

"Do you know what this is Sookie?" He asks and his voice has a hitch to it that I know means he's as incredibly arroused as I am. I shake my head no. "It's a replica of a man's cock." I hear my breath hitch at that.

"What are you going to do to me?" I ask repeating my question from earlier in the night. Eric laughs darkly again.

"I'm going to fuck you with it." Without warning he inserts the object into my entrance and brings his mouth down on my nub. The feeling of being fucked and licked at the same time is almost overwhelming and I begin to cry out incoherently. Eric works me with his tongue and with the toy for what seems like eternity bringing me to one release and then another. By the time he stops I'm jerking and pulling hard against my restraints and calling out to God and anyone else that might hear me and help me stay sane.

"You can have no idea how perfect you are little one. It's as if you were made to bring me pleasure, made to drive me wild. Watching you writhe on this bed, seeing your breasts sway as you move, your hips buck as I work you, I have never wanted another as I want you."

"How do you want me?" I whisper with what little breath I have left. Suddenly I feel Eric's body completely on top of me. He rips off the scarf covering my eyes and when I open them I see that he's nearly crazy with passion. He presses his body against mine, grinding his hardness into my sex and fisting both his hands into my hair. He drags my mouth to his in a ferocious kiss and scrapes his fangs against my lips. I buck up against him every bit as deperate to feel him as he is to feel me despite my two releases.

"I want your sweet little bottom again, I need it. Can you take me little one, can you take me there?" His voice is ragged and barely above a whisper.

"Anything, anything just love me." I say raising my head and planting kisses everywhere I can reach. Faster than I can track Eric is off of me and the restraints binding my legs are undone. I bend my legs a little to make sure that I can feel them again and then Eric flips me over. My hands are still bound and the effect is that though my legs are free my hands are completely immobile now and pulled above my head. I moan when I feel Eric rear up behind me. Without another word I feel him grip my hips in his hands and plunge his member into my dripping wet sex. He thrusts hard a few times coating his cock completely in my juices and then he withdraws and brings himself to my rear entrance.

I brace myself as I feel him entering me there slowly but steadily. The second time there is less pain and even more pleasure and I am moaning and rearing back into him with every bit of strength I have. I hear Eric give a deep gutteral moan in return as he bottoms out in me and begins to thrust in and out of my ass. He stops thrusting for just one moment and then I feel his arm come around. To my shock he doesn't begin playing with my nub, but inserts the toy member into my sex again and begins thrusting it in a counter rhythm so that one of them is always inside me. The pressure and the pleasure of being fucked in both places at once is incredible and I start to scream from the unbelievable ecstasy. It doesn't take long to reach my peak and when I fall over I come screaming Eric's name, as ever.

Eric stops thrusting, waiting for me to recover. When I can breath again I feel that he's untied my wrists as well and he takes me gently by the shoulders and pulls me onto my knees pressing my back to his chest and cupping my breasts in his hands. Slowly he starts to thrust into me again and I feel my passion building once more, almost instantaniously. We moan and writhe together as he takes me again, calling out to each other and letting everything else fall away. I'm so out of my head from the sensations he's causing that when he reaches his peak and sinks his fangs into the back of my shoulder I don't even realize that, as I come too, I turn my neck and bite his arm, in return until I taste his blood on my lips. Far from startling him though the bite only seems to enhance his pleasure and makes him come harder.

When it's over we both collapse onto the bed, and groan as Eric pulls out of me. Within seconds his arms come around me pulling my back to his chest and kissing and caressing my hair. I'm so sleepy I have no ability to form words and so instead I close my eyes and just let myself enjoy the feeling of him holding me.

When I open my eyes next it's daylight and I am alone. I turn my head over to the pillow that Eric had layed on and inhale his scent deeply. His scent makes my heart ache and my eyes sting. I remember everything we did and said last night but I also remember why it happened and what will happen tonight. I am so conflicted. I love him and I know he loves me, but really what more is there beyond that? We have no future together, even with all of our sweet words and caresses he will never let either of us forget that.

A moment later, as if she somehow always knows when my eyes pop open, Tara enters. She greets me happily and loudly, and chatters on about everything and nothing. As she does so she produces a small ink well, a pen, and two sheets of paper from underneath a beautiful red silk dress. She places them carefully behind the couch and then proceeds to help me to get ready.

I know her loud chatter is for the benefit of my guard and so I respond in kind as we talk over what will happen tonight. Since I am the future toy of a Queen I must look my best and apparently red is every vampire's favorite color. The dress Tara has brought me is the nicest dress I have ever seen, though Tara assures me I will get an even nicer one when Eric returns me to my owner. I try very hard not to even think about that and instead turn my attention to helping Tara wash my hair and set it in the most fancy style I've ever had. Once that's done, Tara finally puts the dress over me and bids me goodbye promising to return in several hours to collect me.

We have taken so long washing and dressing me that it's almost dusk now. Tonight I light my own lamp and take the pen, ink, and paper Tara left me out of their hiding place behind the couch. I sit down and try to compose my thoughts but they are so jumbled and confused that nothing ends up on the paper. What do I ask my Gran? How will she help me? These people will not give me up out of the goodness of their hearts, and how on Earth will I ever explain any of this to the police? Would the occupying union soilders that have been the police and the government since the end of the war even care that a poor southern girl was taken against her will? The good Lord knows how much of that they've done themselves. Neither Gran nor Sam have any money to try and buy my freedom and they don't know anyone who would give them that kind of money even as a loan. What really can I ask?

In the end I put the pen down, the paper still blank, and put them back in their hiding place. I will have to think more before I write anything. A few minutes later Tara brings me a small dinner which she bids me to eat hurriedly. Once the meal is done she escorts me to the pallor. The other students are gathering there as well, except for the two women Melanie and Belina. Tara gestures for me to sit in a chair along the wall. I take it just as my dancing partner from the other day sits besides me. I give him a small nod and he gives me one in return but really he isn't paying attention to me or anyone else. He's far to excited about what will happen tonight. Not only will he thoroughly enjoy seeing the two women "demonstrate" their talents. He is also excited at the prospect of seeing one of them bought. He cannot wait until his turn comes and I see from his head that he imagines it will be to a pampered and spoiled life where he will want for nothing.

The clock on the fireplace mantle strikes three quarters of the hour and suddenly the pocket doors open and Appius, who I recognize from Tara's head, and the visitng vampire Mr. Morgaine enter the room. The two are chatting jovially but stop so that we can all bow to both of them and show our respect. To my utter suprise Mr. Morgaine walks directly up to me.

"You must be the pet of the Queen of Louisianna?" He asks though it's not really a question. I smile politely and bob him another curtsey.

"I am Sir." I say in my most humble tone. He takes my hand in his and uses it to force me to twirl around. When I come to a stop facing him again I see that his fangs are fully down. His look is predetory and hungry and no matter how many vampires give me that look I feel that I will never get over my fright of it.

"Her Majesty has impeccable taste. You will be hard pressed, Appius, to offer me something I find more palatable than this little girl." Appius narrows his eyes at that and gives me a sharp look. He gestures Mr. Morgaine over to one of the two arm chairs facing the fire and takes the other for himself.

"I assure you Mr. Morgaine, you will not be dissapointed by the choices I have for you tonight. One of the girls has been trained by me personally." At this Mr. Morgaine chuckles quite amused by something.

"That I would like to see, you training a woman? Was there no one else or are you just growing bored with the same old same old?' Appius face stays perfectly neutral but I see his hand tighten just a fraction on the arm of the chair. When he looks at Mr. Morgaine though there is nothing but a light hearted smile playing on his face.

"Everyone needs a change now and then, and I do enjoy beauty simply for it's asthetic value." Appius looks as though he will say more but the clock again chimes, this time announcing the hour of nine and through the still open pocket doors I see Pamela and the other vampires of the house, with the exception of Eric and Clancy, stand along the far wall.

Once they have settled themselves I see the vampire that must be Clancy walk in, on his arm is a completely naked and smiling Melanie. Clancy brings Melanie directly infront of Mr. Morgaine and she dips a deep curtsey never taking her eyes off of him and completely unselfconscious of her nudity. Mr. Morgaine looks her up and down and makes a motion with his finger to indicate that she should make a full turn. Melanie does so very slowly allowing him to get a good veiw of all of her. Mr. Morgaine bobs his head and Clancy takes Melanie over to stand at one side of the fire place.

Appius claps his hands and Eric enters, a naked and smiling Belina on his arm. Eric stops in front of Mr. Morgaine and Belina dips him a low curtsey and turns around for him as well. Eric then takes Belina to stand on the other side of the fireplace. Appius and Mr. Morgaine whisper for a few moments and then Appius gestures for Eric and Belina to step in front of them again. My heart is litterally pounding out of my chest. I realize only now that I have hoped that Mr. Morgaine would like Melanie and not Belina so I would be spared the trial of watching Eric do anything. But it seems that Belina's pettite frame and flaming red hair are more to his liking than Melanie' dark hair and longer limbs. Appius makes another gesture and without a single word spoken Eric and Belina turn to face each other and Belina drops to her knees in front of him.

From my position along the wall with the other students Appius and Mr. Morgaine are in profile, Eric is facing me and Belina's back is to me. It's the perfect angle to watch every tiny facial twitch and every indication of pleasure Eric gives as Belina undoes the catches to his pants, lowers them just enough to free his member and takes it in her mouth. Eric's hands remain at his sides, but I see the tiny twitch of his jaw that indicates that what she is doing is at least physically pleasurable to him.

Belina works him hard, taking all of him deep down her throat and I hear him groan. The sound rips through me straight to my heart where it rends the muscle in two. It's all I can do to remain silent, to keep my face neutral as I watch this, and it's only made worse by knowing that this is only the beginning.

After a few minutes Eric takes Belina's head in his hand and begins to thrust into her face. Just as he is about to reach his peak he opens his eyes and looks directly at me. Our eyes lock and he releases himself into her waiting mouth. Belina moans her pleasure and I try as hard as I can to stiffle the tears that fill my eyes.

It seems to go on endlessly though I'm sure that we spend no more than an hour total in the room. Eric does to Belina many of the things he's done to me over the past week and I try, I try so hard, to remember last night, to remember the words he said to me and the love that was between us, but as I watch him take her, watch the physical pleasure that he derrives from it I feel my heart start to harden. It's visible proof, so much stronger than the words I've spoken to myself over the past few days, that what's between us is hopeless and will do nothing but torture us both. This is his job, I am his job, if such a mundane word can be ascribed to something so intimate and personal. He is using her as he has used me and even if he does claim to feel for me when he does not for the others, what difference does it make? One day this will be us performing for the Queen and then I will be gone, to a life where I will be expected to be as ready, eager, and happy to please any and all as Belina seems to be, and Eric will be here training someone else.

Finally, after what seems an eternity, the demonstration is over and Eric rises to his feet, dressing quickly as though nothing is out of order, as though he hasn't just fucked a girl on the floor in front of sixteen people. Belina lays on the floor at Appius and Mr. Morgaine's feet for a few breathless seconds giving them both the best view of her heaving breasts and completely fucked body and then she rises gracefully and dips them another low curtsey. Appius and Mr. Morgaine whisper again for a few minutes and then we are all dismissed. From the pleased expression on Appius's face it seems Mr. Morgaine has found Belina worthy and will take her.

I file out of the parllor with the other students who are all whispering excitedly about what just took place. Eventually we come to the second and third floors and they all file off into their respective rooms leaving me to make the journey up to the fourth floor blissfully alone. My guard opens my door and I walk through. I hear the snick of the lock behind me and as though it were a signal I let the tears start to fall down my face. I stand there for an unknown amount of time just sobbing against the door and then it's as though I'm taken by a demon. I race over behind the couch and gather the pen, paper, and ink taking them to the tea table. I don't even bother to sit on the couch, I just kneel down on the floor wrinkling the beautiful dress I have on and write.

I write to my Gran and tell her where I am and how I came to be here. I beg her to find some sort of help and a way to get me out. I don't know the name of the street I'm on or the house number but I describe what I remember of the facade in as much detail as possible and when it's done i just cry. I cry as I have never cried before. I fold the letter and put it and the pen and ink behind the couch again and lay down on the bed fully dressed. I have never been able to sleep when I am feeling something deeply but for some reason all the stress of the night and all the exertion it took to cry all those tears exhausts me utterly and I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When I next wake it's to the feeling of a large hand shaking me. I hear a voice calling my name and I recognize it as Eric's, but his tone is cold and angry and it sounds so unlike him. When I finally open my eyes I see that I am right, it is Eric and he looks more angry and more terrifiying than any other being I have ever seen. More frightening than Mr. Compton, more frightening than Lorena, more frightening than the Queen. Before I can say anything he holds up my letter.

"What is this?" He asks and his voice is like cold water over ice. I sit up groggy and try to form words but my mouth does not want to cooperate. "Answer me Sookie, what the fuck is this?" He waves the letter in my face. I know I should really answer him, but I find that my mouth and my brain have become disconnected either from sleepiness or from sheer terror.

"How did you find my letter?" My answering question only seems to enrage him further and I hear the snick of his fangs slamming down. He is very close to me on the bed and I can feel the anger radiating off of him as though it were a physical thing.

"I smelled the ink when I came into the room. Among other things vampires have very heightend scenses of smell. Now answer me, I will not ask again." I swallow hard and he inches closer driving home his threat. I burst instantly into tears and try to take hold of him, but he backs away to quickly for me to see and when he stops he's standing at the foot of the bed, too far away to touch.

"What did you expect me to do? I am a prisoner here and you have made it clear that no matter what you feel for me you will never help me to escape. Did you really just expect me to accept that my life is over and that I will be nothing more than a well trained whore for as long as I live?" I shout the words at him through my tears hoping to make him understand, hoping to make him soften, but it seems my words and tears could not have fallen on more unsympathetic ears.

"What did I expect of you? I expected you to be rational! I expected you to be smart! Do you not even understand what you have done you idiotic girl? Do you think that if Tara, and I assume it's stupid, good hearted little Tara that you've dragged into this, got this message to your Grandmother you would be instantly freed? You will never leave this house unless it is to go to the Palace. This FOOLISH STUPIDITY," he says waving the letter again, "would have gotten you nothing for your pains except your death and most undoubtedly mine too. Appius already suspects that I am improperly attached to you, do you think he would not punish me for my laxity, for not teaching your proper place?" Before he's even finished with his sentance Eric flings the letter, the ink well, and the pen all into the fire place and watches as the flames flare and then consumes them.

Then suddenly he's directly in front of me a hand on the top of my dress hauling me up and out of the bed. Eric drags me a few steps and then flings me against the wall. I hit it hard but manage to remain standing as he comes up infront of me again, his face a mask of unfathomable rage.

"Was it all a lie then? Did you pretend to love me to make me trusting and careless so that you could plan your escape?" His face is so close to mine but unlike the other times we have been this close arrousal is the last thing I feel.

"Please Eric, please I love you. But surely you must see..."

"I have told you over and over again love has no place between us. Except now I see it is the thing that you would have used to distract me, to cost me my life." For one horrible moment I think that he will strike me, but then he turns away and begins to leave the room. Somehow his abandoment is worse than his anger and I call after him, running to him and grabbing his arm.

"Please, please don't leave like this. Eric, please what will you do, what will happen?" Eric shakes me off his arm as though I'm not more than an annoying fly that has landed on it, the force of his detaching me belied by the tiny amount of effort it took to achieve it. I land on the floor in a heap of red silk and Eric looks down on me coldly.

"No one will know of this. For my well being not yours. You will not see Tara again, and as for your idiocy, I will meet out your punishment myself. I will not be lax in that department any longer." His voice is like a glacier and I don't dare say anything for fear of enraging him farther. I just nod my head and look down at the floor as the door closes and locks behind me.


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N: As always thanks to everyone who has reviewed, put this story in their favorties, and on alert. Okay so, this story is not rainbows and sunshine. If you're still with me that shouldn't come as a suprise. There is some more heavy/uncomfortable angst coming up, but after this it gets better. Hang with me, I won't tell you how, but there is a happy ending!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own them, that's no suprise ;)_

Eric's POV

When I rise the next night everything comes rushing back to me and I feel real pain in my heart for the first time in eight hundred years. Not physical pain, but a deep, deep ache that seems to rob me of my will to even get up. I have not felt anything so deeply since the night my wife died still cradling the body of our already dead son in her arms. I swore to myself that I would never allow myself to feel such anguish again. I have lived through countless horrors in the last eight hundred years and not once did I allow them to penetrate me the way Sookie's betrayal has.

I feel my anger rising up again as I remember her words last night. No matter how much _**I **_feel for _**her **_I would not help her escape she said. It's all so very clear now. I took her for an innocent, I imagined that because she was not physcially experienced she was naive in other ways to, but clearly she is not. She somehow managed to get under my skin and she used the knowledge of my infatuation with her to bend me.

I am disgusted as I remember that I came to her last night still reaking of Belina, hoping to comfort her and find comfort in return. All I wanted was for her to press her sweet little body against mine and replace Belina's scent with her own as we whispered our love to each other. I have not felt nauseous in eight centuries but I instantly know that is what I feel right now. I have been used, played with, manipulated by a foolish, stupid girl and now I must go to that same girl and meet out her punishment.

My disgust turns to flat out horror as I realize that even now I do not want to hurt her. Even now when she has so clearly shown that she cares nothing for me, that she would have sacrificed my very life to go back to the dirt infested shit hole Compton apparently pulled her from, I do not want to bring her pain. I hear myself let out an animalistic roar and see the lamp from the table by my bedside go sailing across the room, hitting the wall, and leaving a dripping trail of Kaerosine down to the floor.

The rage motivates me and I get up dressing quickly and heading upstairs. Just as I am mounting the stairs to the upper floors Pamela intercepts me.

"I have what you asked for." She says simply handing me a blanket covered bundle. I nod my head and she follows me up the first flight of steps and parts ways with me at the door to her student's room. I climb the rest of the way undisturbed. When I reach the fourth floor the guard at Sookie's door bows as always and opens it for me.

I enter and hear the door close behind me. It takes a moment to locate Sookie. She is sitting on the floor by her bed sobbing. For an instant the sound hurts me, but I shake off the weakness and call out to her in my coldest voice.

Sookie rises, dressed again in the red robe and gown, and walks over to me. Her hair is pulled back in a simple pony tail secured by a bit of red ribbon and her face is streaked with tears, her eyes swollen and red, and her nose dripping. I hate myself when I realize that even tears cannot make her unnattractive to me. Sookie does not make eye contact with me only looks down at the floor and tries to stiffle her cries.

"Tonight you will be punished for your foolishness." I say without any preamble. Sookie simply nods her head and continues to stare at the floor. "Take off your clothes." I command her and I hear her make a little sob but she only nods her head again and begins to shed her nightgown.

As she undresses I kneel upon the bed and part the curtains of the canopy above it bringing down a solid length of steel chain with a hook attached. From the bundle Pamela gave me I pull a pair of steel cuffs attached to each other by a chain and walk over to Sookie, now naked and trembling.

Sookie looks up at me for the first time and looks as though she will attempt to say something to me, but I cut her off by shaking my head and giving her an icy glare. She looks away dejectedly.

"Hold out your hands." She obeys and I clasp the shackles onto her wrists. Taking the chain between them I tug her over to the bed and position her kneeling, with her thighs spread in the center and take the chain of the shackles and secure it to the hook. When it's done I step off the bed and stare at her. She is naked kneeling before me on the bed her arms upstretched and bound above her, her body completely on display. I feel myself harden as I watch her breasts sway with her trembling, but she is missing something. I make my way over to the small night table by the bed and produce one of the scarves that I used to bind her two nights ago when I thought that she shared my feelings, when I bound her in love to show her my devotion, to worship her body. As I use it to gag her, it feels right that it should now stiffle her screams of pain.

When she is ready I take the riding crop from bundle and hold it out for her to see. She recognizes what it is immediately and I see her eyes grow wide with fear. I say nothing as I walk around the bed behind her, but once she cannot see me anymore I take a moment to steady myself, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment and taking an unnecessary breath. This must be done, for me as much as for her. I must conquer these feelings for her, I must excise them from my body.

Without further adieu I let my arm go back slightly and bring the crop down hard on her bottom. Sookie attempts to stifle her cry but it comes out anyway, and I see the large red stripe that forms almost instantly on her bottom.

"You will never attempt to escape from this place again." I say and land another stinging blow to her bottom.

"You will never attempt to contact anyone from your former life again." another blow. Sookie screams from the pain and I hear her crying.

"You will accept this as your new life." another blow.

"You will never endanger my life with your foolishness again." I land two more hard blows and then I drop the crop. When I come around the bed again to her front Sookie's head is down, her body almost limp from the pain and her sobs are wringing through the room. She looks completely broken. I try not to examine my pain at this thought and instead I reach up and unhook her shackles from the chain above the bed. When I release her wrists I expect her to scurry to the other side of the bed. She knows what I am now and that she should never ever play with me again. But instead of flying away from me in terror she throws her arms around me and sobs brokenly into my chest. I take her arms and make to push her away from me but she clings to me.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she whispers through her sobs. "I didn't think, I never thought what it would mean for you, if I had known for a moment you would be in danger I would never have done it." She doesn't try to look up at me, doesn't try to convince me with wide blue eyes that she is telling the truth, she just clings to me as though she will find comfort in my body.

"Whether you meant to endanger me or not is not the issue, you did." I say coldly, and this time I do push her off of me. She lands sideways on the bed and I rise to leave.

"Eric, please," She calls after me. I know if I turn back now and see her so broken and injured on the bed I will lose myself in her again and so I keep my back to her and put my hand out to the door. "I know that I did wrong, but I never lied to you. I love you. That, more than anything else, is why I had to try to leave." Her words catch me completely unprepared and without my consent my legs turn me and I am back at the foot of the bed.

"What?" I sneer down at her. She takes a gulping breath.

"Last night when you were with...her, all I could think was that soon that would be me, and then I would be sent to the Queen, and you would train another and there couldn't be any future for us, and Eric I can't do it. I can't do the things you've trained me to do with the Queen or anyone else. With you they are dark and mysterious and wonderful, with anyone else they would just be dirty. I can do them here because we do them together, because I do them for you, but the thought of doing them with anyone else, it's horrifying." I want so badly to believe her. I want to believe that she truly feels for me what I feel for her. Even if she does love me though, there is nothing for us beyond what happens in this bed and I have been a fool to allow her and especially myself to let things go this far, the fact that I knew this to be true but let myself be drawn into this thing between us anyway only serves to prove how very much it must stop.

So instead of being drawn again into her spell, I simply nod my head accepting her explanation but not allowing it to change things. Without another word I turn and walk through the door, leaving the guard to lock it after me.


	14. Chapter 14

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Sookie's POV

(1 month later)

I feel Eric fist his hand into my hair and pull my head back, preparing to bite me as he moves in me from behind. From my front Clancy takes my breasts in both his hands and begins twisting my nipples roughly as he plunges in and out of my sex. I move with them both and lose myself in the sensation of their bodies pleasuring mine as mine pleasures theirs, and I try not to think of anything else.

From the corner of my eye I can see Appius sitting in the arm chair at the foot of the bed. The same one Eric sat in the night we first truly admitted our love. All that seems like a dream now. I have ruined it all and he will never love me again. Instead of love there is lust though, and there is so much of that to be had it seems to cloud the room like fog.

I do not regret trying to escape, and I do not hate Eric for my punishment, I know that we both did what we had to. I only wish that he could understand why I had to try to escape, as I understand why he had to punish me. But he does not. Instead I believe he believes that he never meant anything to me at all, and so he has done everything possible to show me that I mean nothing to him anymore. My lessons almost always include at least one other vampire and when they are done Eric leaves without a second glance. When he must speak to me he is cold and distant, never showing a sign of the tenderness or love of which I know he is capable. Perhaps the whole thing was for the best though. Whether or not I ever attempt to escape this world again, for now this is my life, and Eric was right when he said there is no place for love in it.

I cry out as I reach my peak and feel Eric and Clancy lower their heads at the same time and bite each of my shoulders, moments later I feel them both release their essence into me. When it 's done Appius claps his hands to show his approval. It appears that after five weeks I have pleased him with my progress from virgin to blood whore.

Appius and Clancy both leave within moments of each other and Eric and I are left alone. I don't look over at him and I expect that he will leave in just a moment as well. Instead I get down from the bed, put my midnight blue robe back on, and walk back to my room without a backward glance. Once there I go to the vanity, pick up my brush, and attempt to smooth the tangles out of my hair. I'm utterly astonished when I feel him come up behind me.

"You did well, Appius was pleased." I turn around slowly and look up at him. He has put his pants back on but not his shirt and he looks so entirely beautiful that I feel the breath leaving my body. With all my might I summon my courage and answer him.

"I am glad." He looks down in to my eyes and I see the malestrom that seems to churn inside them everytime he is with me. It almost makes me believe maybe he still cares for me, but I know that it's useless to hope for that.

"Appius has told me that you will leave for the Queen's household in two more weeks." I swallow hard when I hear this but only nod my head. What more is there to say? Eric sees that I have no response and turns and leaves.

When he is gone I let the tears fall as they have every night since my punishment. I have lost everything now I think. I will never see my Gran again, I am a prisoner and a whore. In all of this bad there was one shining good, finding the man I was meant to love, and now that is gone as well.

As I cry I begin to cough and I realize that I have been doing it over much in the last few days. I have felt so emotionally horrible that I did not realize until now that I feel physically horrible as well. It's a strange sensation for me, I have always been uncommonly healthy, and so I'm not sure what to do. I realize that in addition to the cough and the general sense of badness I also feel extremely cold and so I decide to stoke the fire and lay in bed.

As the night turns into day I realize that I'm feeling worse and not better but I have no strength to even get up and ring the cord by my bed to summon the maid. Finally I just let sleep take me and hope that when I rise I will feel better.

When I swim to conciousness again I hear voices buzzing around me but I feel to tired to open my eyes. They are calling to me, but they are not who I want. Instead of answering them I try to call out and see if I can summon the one voice I want to hear. It's a great deal of effort but I form Eric's name twice. He does not come though, I do not know why I thought he would, and so I let the blackness pull me back down.

When I come to again I still feel awful, but there is a pleasant coolness stroking my forehead. I try with all my might to concentrate on what's going on around me. My eyes won't seem to open but my ears appear to work.

"...and who else knows about her condition?" If I could summon the energy to make it my heart would jump from happiness, Eric! I listen to him and try to get my body to make some kind of response.

"Just the doctor I brought here today. The other's were at there daytime lessons and the night maid is late and hasn't come yet." There is a brief pause and then Eric's voice takes on a strange eerie quality.

"You will send a message to the doctor indicating that Sookie has made a full recovery and no longer needs his services. When you have done so you will forget that she was ever sick. You came, fed her, bathed her, and helped her dress. She was in a good mood as always, then you left. Do you understand?" Moments later I hear the door close and I'm taken with panic that he has left me again. Perhaps he told the maid to forget I was sick because he intends to let me die. I try to call to him but all that comes out is a strangled cry. The sound however is enough to bring the pleasant coolness back to my forehead and I realize now that I am a little more concious that the coolness is Eric's hand stroking me.

"Little one can you hear me?" His voice is so soft, so tender, it makes my heart melt and I realize that I must be dreaming. Yes, I must be dreaming that he is here with me and he loves me once more. With all my might I give a little sob.

"Uuhhn," it's pathetic really, but the sound is enough to let him know that I've heard him.

"Little one you must listen to me. The maid says you are very sick, you have something the doctor called influenza. You are burning up with fever. They believe there is nothing they can do but wait and see if you recover. This is not true. I can heal you, but you must open your mouth." I try so hard, but my body seems so uncooperative. Really, he can't have any idea how hard it was just to make those few sounds. "Sookie, please. Please open your mouth. I cannot sit here and watch you die. I need you to be well." He says it as though he cannot watch me die because it will hurt him and that he needs me to be well because he loves me. These are things I know are no longer true and it convinces me further that I must be having some sort of strange dream, yet even still I struggle to make my mouth open.

When I finally get my lips to part I feel something cool and salty running down them. At first the taste is quite startling, but once it has really settled into my mouth I find it quite wonderful. Within a moment or two I find I have the strength to suck more of it into my mouth. Once I start drinking it I cannot stop, and when he would take it away from me I feel my hands, which are now capable of movement, come up to stop him. My shock is so great that my eyes pop open as I realize that what I am drinking is his blood, straight from his wrist, and this is no dream.

I look up at Eric and his eyes are wild, filled with so many emotions that I cannot name them all. But the predomininant one I see is very familiar to me, lust. Faster than my eyes can see Eric has his clothes off and is in the sweaty bed beside me taking me in his arms, kissing my bloody lips, licking himself off of them.

"Sookie, Sookie," he whispers over and over again, as though he is in pain, as we kiss and his hands caress every part of my body they can reach. I am far better than I was moments ago but still feel weak and so I simply lay their and revell in the feeling of his hands and mouth on me.

"Eric," I say just once as I feel his hands wander over the thin translucent blue robe that I went to sleep in last night and begin to caress my breasts. My body is so tired, but I cannot let myself fall asleep, not when he is so gentle and tender and filled with what feels so much like love. I put my arms around him and hold his face to my neck as he licks and sucks at the vein there and then lets his mouth travel southward. When his lips close over my breast taking my nipple in his mouth and sucking it through the fabric of my robe I let out a grateful cry and try to buck up pushing my breast against his lips. What we are doing now, compared to the many many things we have done before, is very simple, more mutual comfort than sex, but nothing I have ever experienced has ever felt so good.

Eric moves us so that he is on top of me and his hands begin to gather the fabric of my robe pulling it up to my waist. As soon as my lower body is free of the restraint of the clothing I part my legs and feel his hand begin to caress me as his mouth continues to worship first one of my breasts and then the other. I let out a low moan as I feel his hand gently pinch and twist my nub and then feel two fingers enter me and begin to pump in and out.

Eric is moaning low and long into my breasts and I can feel that he's barely holding on to restraint. When he feels I'm ready he lifts his head from my breasts, locks eyes with me, and pushes into me slowly, slowly holding back with such restraint so that he will not hurt my still weak body.

"Why did you not tell me you were sick?" He whispers between clenched teeth as he begins to move inside me. I feel better with every passing moment and have just enough power over my limbs now to wrap my legs around him and hold on as he thrusts in and out of me.

"I don't know. I didn't realize I was so sick, and I didn't think you would care anyway." I say it all softly, it's the honest truth, but I don't want to break the spell that's decended over us. I don't want to think about how it's been between us this past month. Eric stops moving within me, but far from breaking the spell my words seem to break through the final layer of the hard mask that he has adopted these last weeks and I see him look at me with real love. He gently takes my hair in his hands and tilts my head so that our lips are just a centimeter apart, and when he speaks I can feel him forming the words as well as hear them.

"Do not you realize that the problem has always been that I care to much." With that he kisses my lips tenderly and begins to move inside me again. The feeling of him, just him, above me and in me in this simple act is so overwhelming and I cry out with my pleasure and joy and love as I have never cried out before. As I cling to him he whispers to me such wonderful things. Telling me how scared he was when he found me tonight. Telling me how much he cares, how he has tried to stop but he cannot.

I know that this will bring us both nothing but misery, but I cannot find it in my heart to feel unhappy about it. If I must go through the rest of my life like this than I will cling to the memories of these nights we had together, and the man who made me love him almost the instant that I saw him.

After what feels like forever hanging on the edge of bliss Eric and I fall over together and he collapses beside me and pulls me to him. I lay there cuddled into his side and catching my breath as he strokes my hair, making his own long journey back to coherency. When it seems that we are both fully concious again I place a gentle kiss on his chest.

"I love you," He says quietly. My heart litterally leaps from my body. I kiss his chest again and again and feel the tears forming in my eyes. Eric strokes my hair, my arm, my back and tries to comfort me.

"I love you as well," I say, between tears. I feel his arms tighten around me and he places a gentle kiss to the top of my head. "I don't want this type of life without you, that's why I tried to escape. Not to bring you harm. I never even thought about the consequences of my actions. I was hysterical with pain after watching you with her." I hold him tighter and rub my cheek into his chest, hoping that this time he will listen to my words and believe them as he could not the last time I uttered them.

"I know Sookie. I...regret your punishment." I hear him sigh deeply the sound filled pain and remorse for what he has done. "That is not the type of relationship I would wish to have with you if things were different. I do not wish to be your master, and I wish that the things I teach you were only for my benefit." I go up on my elbow and look him in the eye, hope filling me for the first time in a month. Maybe escape is possible, maybe something beyond just escape is possible, maybe we could leave together, find a new life. I would follow him anywhere, live any way that I had to if only we could be together.

"Why could we not go together? If you truly mean it then let us leave." Eric silences me with a finger over my mouth.

"That is not possible Sookie, for many, many reasons," he seems content to leave it at that but when I raise my eyebrow questioningly and begin to contradict him he relents with a sigh and truly explains things to me, things that make me feel more hopeless than ever. "Sookie, you have learned a great deal while you have been here, but there are many aspects of our nature that you are still in great ignorance of. I am not human, we are not human. We are something different entirely. My existence no longer has a time limit, but the price of immortality is one's free will. A vampire is a slave to his maker just as surely as you will be a slave to her Majesty. If Appius wishes me to do a thing I must do it regardless of my own desires because he commands it. This is not a choice on my part, and so how far do you think we would get before Appius called me back? What do you think he would do to both of us? Even assuming that he chose not kill us for our betrayal and escape, do you think the Queen of Louisanna would simply let you slip through her fingers after she has paid so much to have you trained? Even if my master chose to let me go, which he will not, we would be hunted to the ends of the Earth by the Queen." He looks away at this last and I know that despite the finality of his words he wishes things were different.

"Then you are every bit as much a prisoner as I am?" Eric turns back to me and his eyes narrow sharply for one long moment, but then his facial features relax into a sort of bitter acceptance and he nods at me.

"We are all prisoners to one thing or another Sookie, it's just that some of us have more visable chains." I squeeze my arms around him and he laughs bitterly. "You must not feel sorry for me little one, truly before I saw you there was nothing much to feel sorry about. I am a vampire, sex and blood are to me like oxygen and water are to you. Having a variety of lovely creatures paraded before me for me to drink from and debauch, it is what every vampire dreams of." I know he does not mean it to hurt but it does. I hate the thought of him with another, and every time I have it I am brought back to the parlor downstairs, reliving the horrible night when I watched him take pleasure in another woman.

"Every vampire, is it what you dream of?" I ask him knowing the question is unfair but wanting his reassurance anyway. He frowns for a moment and then opens his mouth. Before saying anything he closes it again and I see a hundred emotions flit by before he settles on one that looks like determination. His answer is far more than I could have ever hoped for and I love him all the more for it.

"It was for a long time, but when I saw you, you stirred something in my heart I had not felt for centuries. When I look on you I feel as though I could almost be human again, I could almost have back those feelings of love and belonging that were taken away from me." I lean up and kiss his lips softly.

"Why did your maker chose to take you away? Surely he could see your happiness?" Eric snorts and looks at me as though I am the most niave girl on the earth, which I suppose is still true.

"My maker did not waste enough time before taking me to surmise if I was happy in my life or not. Though, to be honest by the time he found me I was not." I look at him and the question is apparent on my face, but I do not ask him to tell me. He has warned me before not to be curious about his kind. However it seems this is a night for confessions and Eric holds me in his arms as he tells me his story.

"You loved her very much?" I ask him when he tells me about his wife and her tragic death. He kisses the top of my head and looks down at me, his eyes briming with emotion. I think at any other time he might have lied to me, might have brushed it off as the past and not worth hurting over, but not tonight.

"I did very much. At first I did not think that I would, she was older than me and as I told you she had been my brother's wife. I remember my only thought when my father told me I would marry her was just that I was happy not be saddled with a silly, stupid girl. But as time went by I came to love her very much, and when she died I was overcome with a kind of grief I could not handle. My father, never having loved my mother, did not understand why I could not pull myself out of it and so he determined that the best way to cure my strange meloncholy was to put another woman in my bed. So another marriage was arranged and my maker found me on the night I returned from first meeting her." Eric tells me the sad end, and some of the horrible aftermath of his making and I feel tears pricking my eyes, but I don't let them fall. I know he is telling me these things for a reason. I know he is sharing his past pain because he knows how much pain I will soon have to endure. He wants me to know that it can be survived. That to find happiness in this life one must first, before anything else survive long enough to see it.

When he is finished telling me his story we just lay there for a long while holding one another. Finally though I ask the thing that is foremost on my mind.

"In two weeks I go to the Queen?" I ask him, my voice trembling. He gives an afirming sound and squeezes my arm. "What then?"

"What was always coming. You will have your new life and I will remain in this one." I feel my throat tighten when he says it, I know it's true, but there is still time. I take hold of it now after wasting the last weeks and use my returned energy to lift myself up and straddle his body. Without a word I take him in me completely, his hands entwining with mine and our eyes locking.

"Then let us not waste what time we have left." Eric lets out a low strangled moan and I begin to move on him, taking us both to completion with every bit of strength I have.


	15. Chapter 15

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Eric's POV

Time moves very differently for vampires than it does for humans. Living mulitiple lifetimes puts it's passage in a whole new perspective. However it seems the experience that happiness makes time move faster is universal. When I open my eyes this night it is with the knowledge that tonight is Sookie's last night here. Tomorrow Appius and I will return her to the Queen.

My dead heart litterally constricts when I think of it, no matter how many times I have told myself that there is no help for it, the foolish urge to take her and try to run is overwhelming and it takes every last ounce of strength and willpower garnered over my eight centuries of existance to tamp it down. Instead I dress quickly and make my way up to her room. Since the night I healed her I have taken pains to make sure that we are alone. As long as she is here I am done sharing her and so instead we have spent every night talking, holding each other, and making love. I try to comfort myself now by telling myself that we have at least this one last night to have all those things once more.

When I open the door Sookie is sitting on the small sofa. As soon as the door closes she is up, across the room, and in my arms. I lean down and kiss her softly. When I break the kiss to let her breath she puts her arms around my neck and just holds me to her for a long time.

"Please don't take me away tomorrow. Tell them I need more time, tell them I am not ready. Anything, please but don't make me go. Don't make me leave you." I feel my eyes squeezing shut against the tears that want to fall. I have known since the moment I layed eyes on her that tomorrow was coming and yet now that it is almost here I too wish there was any excuse I could make to keep her with me, even if it were only for a single night more.

"There is nothing we can do Lover. You are ready and Appius has seen so himself." I pick her up and bring her fully dressed to the bed and lay us both down. She pulls me close to her and looks up into my eyes, hers already wet with tears that haven't yet fallen.

"There has to be something we can do. Eric I cannot be without you." I look at her and I know before the words are out of my mouth what I will offer her. It is something I have never shared with a human, something I have never even contemplated. I never cared enough for one to do so. It's bitterly ironic that now that I finally desire this it will probably only serve to hurt us both more instead of bringing the great joy it should.

"There is something Sookie, but it is not the solution that you hope for." She looks at me and I see the question in her eyes. "You have taken my blood twice already. If you were to take it once more a permenant bond would be formed between us. We would always know where the other was, we would be able to find each other even over large distances, we would share each other's emotions, and we would feel great joy in each other's presence. It will not solve our problem, but we would always have a peice of each other that no one else could ever take away." I look to see her reaction and I realize that I am feeling hope. Hope that she will say yes, that she will let me keep even this small part of her.

"If we share each other's feelings than we would always know when one of us was with another." She frowns and looks down at the small bit of bed between us. As quickly as it flared I feel this small hope begin to drain from me. She does not want this.

"Yes, it would be the price we would have to pay." She does not look up at me but continues to stare down at the bed for a long time. Just when I have completely given up hope I hear her voice small and trembling.

"Yes," At first I think I have misheard, but then she looks up at me, taking my face in her hands and pulling me so close that we could kiss. "I meant what I said, I can't be without you. If this is the only way to have even a little bit of you with me always than this is what I want." I feel the smile that forms on my face and I kiss her everwhere I can reach, her lips, her chin, her jaw, her cheeks, her eyes and nose. I do not tell her, because I do not wish to give her what may only end as false hope, but if I can manage to get away from Appius than our bond would supercede even the Queen's claim to her. This is where our hope lies. I have only to make it happen. "What do we do?" She asks her voice soft and sweet. I smile at her lasiviously.

"What we're best at little one." With that we begin to remove each other's clothes slowly and unhurriedly. Both of us seeming to desire that our last night together be about our love and not our desperation. When we are both naked and ready I sit her astride me and enter her in one stroke. Sookie throws back her head and moans loudly as she begins to move on me. Her hands going to my chest for balance and mine coming up to her beautiful bottom. I help her move on me and when we are both nearly mindless with pleasure I sit up and begin to kiss her neck.

"Bite me Lover, hard," I command into her neck as I sink my fangs into her. A moment later I feel her blunt little teeth breaking the skin of my shoulder and we drink from each other at the same time. Nothing has ever felt like this. I have never in my time on this earth allowed a human to take my blood and as Sookie drinks from me and I feel the last strings of our bond knot together I know that no matter how long I live I will never bond with another human again. It took me eight hundred years to fall in love and I already know that my little one, my lover is irreplacable.

It takes only seconds after we bite each other for us to reach our peaks and we both come screaming, our names on each others lips as well as our blood. When it's done we sit there on the bed, and I just hold her. After a while Sookie raises her head and looks at me with wonder in her eyes.

"I can feel you," she says bringing her hand to caress my cheek. I push my face into her hand, turning it to kiss her palm.

"Then you must never doubt how much I love you again." I tell her squeezing her slightly and bringing her even closer to me. She shakes her head, no.

"Neither must you," I laugh softly but then I turn to her quite serious.

"Sookie, listen to me and heed me, you must not try to escape when you go back to her Majesty. It will lead to nothing but your death. Please her majesty and remain alive, I cannot promise you that I will ever be able to come for you, but we are joined now, I could not bare it if you were to die. Do you understand me?" Sookie nods her head and I see a single tear fall from her eyes.

"Do you think we will ever see each other again?" I feel the frown forming on my face.

"Undoubtedly, but we will more than likely never be alone together. I am not a vampire of any note that her majesty would ever gift me with your favors." Sookie burries her face in the crook of my neck but I do not allow her to cry for long. "Do not think on it now Lover, just be with me for as long as we have." With that I kiss her and take her again and again through the night until dawn calls me away. As I go to my rest, the scent of her on me, I begin to wonder, is love of her enough of a reason to kill my maker? For surely that is the only way he will release me during Sookie's lifetime.

The next evening when I rise, I dress in all haste and make my way to Sookie's room. If I hurry than we might have just those few minutes more before she leaves.

When I get to her door I find it open and maids are bussling in and out. As I step inside her room I see that she is standing in the middle of it with three of the maids helping her with final touches to her hair and clothes. She is utterly exquisite, her hair is done up with purple violets worked into the style and just a few strands curled and left to cascade down her back. She is dressed in an midnight blue satin cloak with a high collar encusted with pearls, and tiny pears are sown everywhere into the fabric of the material. The only thing amiss is her face which betrays her misery clearly. When her hair is done a maid brings a pair of matching satin shoes and I pull them out of her hand.

"Leave us," I command, and they all go scurrying. Sookie stands stock still as I come to her, kneeling at her feet and holding out first one shoe and then the other for her. When she is in them both I take her waist in my hands and pull her close to me, burrying my face in her stomach. I feel her hands come up and wind into my hair. Through our newly formed bond I can feel her sorrow and her fear, but also her determination.

"I love you," I say simply, there really is nothing else of any importance for me to say at this point. Yet even as I know that I have never felt an emotion more truly or honestly than the one I have just admitted to her, I feel a stabbing pain in my chest at just how useless those words really are to either of us right now. It does not matter how deeply this emotion runs, it will change nothing. The truth of it causes me to feel an almost painful wave of hopelessness and I know that Sookie feels it as well. Gently she lays her lips to the top of my head in a kiss so soft and yet so filled with emotion that it almost breaks me. When I look up at her she smiles sadly and takes me by the shoulders, gesturing for me to stand. As I do, we wrap our arms around each other, and she cuddles into me.

"And I love you." I give her one last gentle kiss and then I hear Appius coming up the stairs. Sookie and I break apart just as he is entering the room.

"Her majesty's carriage is here, it's time." Without another word, he turns and heads down the stairs. I do not dare look at her or say anything more to her, instead I follow my master and feel Sookie following behind me.

The carriage ride is silent, and so is the walk from the palace doors into her majesty's main audience chamber. We stop only briefly for Sookie to remove her shoes, and then we enter. When we are ushered in I find that almost the whole court is here to see her majesty's newest toy delivered. Sookie sees this also and I both see and feel the breath she takes attempting to find some sort of calmness, or perhaps numbness, to carry her through the ordeal to come.

Appius and I approach Sophie-Anne's throne and bow low. Then Appius presents Sookie to her. Sookie, walks up to the dias and dips into a low curtsey acknowledging the Queen. When she rises Appius comes up behind her, unhooking the clasp to her cloak, and removing it. I take every ounce of strength I posses in my body at this moment and send it to her. I do not get anything in return but I know that she needs all her concentration for herself right now as she attempts to seem unbothered by the fact that she is now standing naked in a room full of vampires and humans, displayed for all to see.

I to try desperately to hang on to my own control as I hear the snick of countless numbers of fangs descending at once. The wave of angry, possesive jealousy that crashes over me is almost enough to bring me to my knees and it is only the discipline of eight centuries that allows me to keep my own mask of indifference in place.

For one endless moment Sophie-Anne says absolutely nothing, just staring at Sookie. Then without warning she rises from her thone, descends the dias, and comes to stand directly in front of Sookie, whose hands I can see trembling slightly. The two woman are about the same height and so Sophie-Anne simply leans over, taking Sookie's chin gently in her hand, and places a soft questioning kiss on Sookie's mouth. I feel all at once the revulsion and the fear that well up in Sookie, but outwardly she gives no sign that she is anything but surprised. After a moment she responds gently in kind, and when the Queen releases her Sophie-Anne is all smiles.

"Appius, Eric, she is wonderful. I am very pleased." Sophie-Anne retakes her seat and gestures for Sookie to come and sit down on a pillow at the foot of her throne. Appius and I are asked to sit and chat with her majesty for a few minutes as well. Appius takes the opportunity to assure Sophie-Anne that her newest pet is beyond compare and as for myself, I nod in the appropriate places, and make all the correct agreeable sounds, but my mind pays no attention. Instead I reach out with our bond and try to express to Sookie my pride in her. She is scared, nervous, and humiliated but as she sits there, her body completely exposed to all the eyes in the room, her head held high, and her face a neutral mask no one would ever know. I realize now that even I have underestimated her. She will survive anything that happens to her here, I know that now, and I find myself loving her all the more, because in this moment I realize that though our story may never have a happy ending I have chosen to love a woman who is my equal in strength and bravery. A woman who is at her heart a fighter and tenacious surviver.

After fifteen minutes or so of pleasantries we are dismissed and Appius and I ride silently back to the house. We have not been in the carriage long when I am hit by the first hard wave of Sookie's emotions. Fear, humiliation, disgust, I do not need to examine them too closely to know what is happening to her now, and I find that my own emotions are torn. I cannot decide whether the pain of knowing what is happening now makes me want to destroy everything I lay my eyes on or simply curl into a ball and weep until it ends. As much as I want desperately to go to her, to help her, to save her, I know that I cannot. There is nothing for me to do now, but to return to the life that I have been living and hope that an opportunity will present itself, however hopeless I know this line of thinking to be.


	16. Chapter 16

_A/N: __In the SVM series, vampires have existed outside of human society for  
thousands of years. This story is an imagining of what the human/vampire  
interaction would have been like. Prior to vampires revealing themselves,  
humans were merely food, or worse. The content of this fic reflects that  
imagined reality, and I chose the title to reflect the content a reader could  
expect, and rated it M. This story has been very hard to write. It's not  
roses or sunshine, and it's not uplifting. Please do not continue to read  
this story if you are not enjoying it, or find the content distressing. If  
you're still with me and you are enjoying this story, I thank you very, very  
much for reading it, and I hope that you will enjoy what is meant to be a  
happy ending._

Normally I would thank everyone that reviewed the story, put it in their  
favorites, and on alert, and I want to do that now with one caveat. I take all  
of my reviews very seriously. I appreciate any and all reviews, but would like  
to request that the criticism be constructive and respectful. I thank you all  
for your feedback on characterization. In interpreting the Sookie/Eric  
relationship in this type of storyline, it is important to me that Eric's more  
human side, and Sookie's strength in times of adversity shine through. It is  
helpful for me to know whether i'm hitting the mark.

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Bill's POV

I watch from a tall tree as the house I have shared with Lorena for the last two years burns to the ground. The pain in my chest is subsiding and with every moment that passes I am consumed with the knowledge that I am free. Free of her tyranny, free of her cruelty, free of her monstrous nature, free to have what is mine!

Once I put my mind to it arranging Lorena's death was far easier than I had ever imagined it could be. I suppose it was my own lack of imagination that had held me back for so long. I was imprisoned by the idea that she was to old, to physically strong for me to fight and therefore that killing her was impossible. But once she stole the Stackhouse girl from me I began to truly think in earnest about how to get rid of her and once I realized that I didn't have to be the one to wield the stake it all fell into place.

As part of our reward for brining Sookie to her Majesty, Sophie-Anne began to call on Lorena and I to do small tasks for her. Things of too little importance to bother her more valuable servants with, but that Lorena was happy to do in exchange for her Majesty's favor and the small amounts of money she paid us. On one such errand, that Lorena deemed me capable of completing on my own, I came across a priest in one of the more seedy sections of the city preaching to the prostitutes, drug users, and hopeless homeless. The man was filled with zeal for God and a hatred for anyone who did not conform to his narrow vision of the behavior God wanted. It was all to easy to capture his mind and feed him the bits and peices he would need.

I used my glamor to convince him that I was an angel sent by God with a mission for him. I told him of the existance of vampires and that God had chosen him to exterminate one of these cursed creatures in particular. Then I allowed him time to gather a small army of likewise narrow minded bigots and frightened sheep, and when he was ready I told him exactly what would kill Lorena and where to find her.

Now as the priest and his lot burn the house down, to ensure that the smoking pile of ash that was once my maker will never rise from the grave again, I turn to make my way to the palace and the second part of my plan.

I am paid almost no attention to as I enter the palace. The guards here are already quite used to seeing Lorena and I go in and out on one menial errand or another. Once past the guards I make my way as steathily as possible to the rooms where the Stackhouse girl is being kept. As I near them I pick up her scent in the air, still delicious but no longer innocent. It makes my blood boil to think of how many other vampires have already had that which is mine, and it makes me even more determined to fulfill my plan. As I get closer to the door I hear a male voice inside, Andre.

"Her Majesty bids you to rest tonight. Tomorrow the King of Oklahoma will arrive to begin trade negotionations. As a token of her Majesty's esteem you will entertain him. I don't have to tell you that your continued comfort here depends on your pleasing him do I?" The girl makes some small and frightened sound of acknowledgement and I hear Andre chuckle. "Good, although it might be more fun for me if you did not please him, then I'm sure I could convince Sophie-Ann to let me carry out your punishment." I hear Andre turn the handle on her door and hide myself just inside an empty room at the other end of the corridor. Once he has left I make my way down the hall smiling the entire way. There isn't even a guard on her door, just a simple lock. It will all be too easy.

I twist the handle on the door until the whole thing breaks and then I push it open. The little Stackhouse girl stands in shock when she sees me in the entry way but she makes no sound or motion to send up the alarm. I knew it. She wished to stay with me as much I wished to keep her. As I approach her I see her take a single step backwards, but nothing else. I hold out one of Lorena's cloaks to the girl and she looks at it and then me with question in her eyes.

"Put this on." I command her. I know already that my glamour will not work on her, something I have kept to myself because I did not owe Lorena or the Queen any explanations after they stole what belonged to me, but I worry now that without the ability to persuade her she will not come with me. Yet, after only a moments hesitation the girl takes the cloak from me and puts it around herself, bringing the hood up to cover her hair and eyes. I can feel my triumphant smile as I take her arm and lead her out of the room. When we are halfway down the hall I turn to her.

"The cloak is Lorena's, the guards should recognize her scent and not question us, but you must say nothing and walk through the gate without fear." The girl nods and I take us out the east gate of the palace instead of the main gate so that there will be no question as to why I entered alone but leave with my "maker". The guards at the east gate pay us no more attention than the guards at the main gate did and we pass through without a problem. Once past the gate I hail a nearby carriage and put the girl inside. I tell the driver to take us a few blocks and when he has done so I get out again. The driver tells me how much money I owe him and when he looks at me waiting for payment I have his mind instantly. I order him to take us to an inn several hours ride out of the city. He nods his head dumbly and I climb back into the carriage. We are just leaving the city limits when the girl looks over at me and speaks for the first time.

"What do you intend to do with me? Where is Lorena?" I smile at her tenderly and take her hand. I feel her flinch ever so slightly but she makes no move to remove her hand from mine, it's a good sign.

"You have nothing to fear from me Sookie, nor from my maker. Lorena is no longer a threat to us, and I want only what should have been in the first place, for you and I to be together. You came with me without so much as a single protest, is it not also what you want as well?" I question her stroking her delicate little hand. She frowns slightly and I begin to worry.

"I did not want to live in the palace, and I did not want to do the things they have trained me to do." I smile at her again.

"You will never have to worry about pleasing anyone but me again Sookie. I will take good care of you and we will be happy together, I promise you." She nods her head but does not smile in return. Instead she turns her head to look out the window and seems to be concentrating very hard on something. Then after a while she speaks again.

"Where are you taking me?" She asks.

"Away, we will leave Louisanna." She nods at this. "We will stop at an inn I know a few hours from here for the day and then we will ride on tomorow night." The girl nods again but says nothing more. The remainder of our journey is a silent one, and we reach the inn just an hour or so before dawn.

When we descend from the carriage I order the driver to forget everything he has done tonight and to go back home. Then I secure a room for us. I leave instructions that we are not to be disturbed during the day for any reason and I bolt the door behind us once we are in our room. The girl has put up no resistence yet, and it pleases me greatly, but I am not yet prepared to trust her with my existence. Once I have made sure that the window is closed and secured a blanket tightly around it so no light can enter the room, I take her hands, sit her down at the foot of the bed and bind them above her head to the bed post. I know she will not be very comfortable but at least she will be able to sit through the day. Again she makes no protest, but I do not know what she will try to do once I am dead for the day and so I gag her as well. I hope these measures will not always be necessary but for now, it is better to be safe than sorry. With that I feel the pull of dawn and lay myself down on the bed.

It has been a momentous night. I have freed myself from my maker and managed to spirit the girl away without so much as lifting a sword. I have great hope for the future as I die for the day.

When I open my eyes again I am pleased to see that everything is as I left it the night before. The girl seems to be asleep at the foot of the bed and clearly we have not been disturbed. I get up from the bed and take a deep inhale of her scent. I feel my fangs pop out and I go over to wake her up.

She stirs immediately when I touch her and looks at me with frightened sightless eyes. Suddenly I remember that she cannot see and I rush over to light the lamp by the bed. Once the lamp is lit she blinks a few times till her eyes adjust and then she looks over at me. She is still gagged but it's clear that she wishes to say something and so I go over to her and pull the fabric down from her mouth.

"Please Mr. Compton, I can't feel my arms." She motions softly to her arms and I immediately untie them. As I undo the knots that bind her I breath in her delectiable scent again and am overwhelmed by it. Once she is unbound I take her in my arms and put my mouth to her neck. The girl gives a strangled cry when I bite her but she says nothing. As I drink I feel the furious need to take that which has been denied me, that which has been given so freely to others and I put my hand under her skirt moving upwards searching to get rid of any barriers between her sex and my hand. Suddenly I feel her hand on mine attempting to stop me. I pull back, releasing her neck from my fangs as well.

"We don't have time for any of that right now." She says matter of factly. "We have to leave here and get farther away, we don't know who may be tracking us or how close they are." I am nearly mindless with want for her but I know that she's right. The Queen will have found her missing by now and her guards may be right on our heels. If I am to keep her we must keep moving. "Do you know where you are taking me next?" I am astonished to hear her talk so confidently but it gives me hope again that she is here willingly and that she is not planning any sort of escape.

"We will keep moving for now." I say. She frowns slightly and then her eyes light up.

"How far are we from Bon Temps?" She asks. I feel myself growing irritated, but answer her.

"Several hours ride more." She nods her head.

"My farmhouse there is boarded up. We could spend the day there and then make our way farther north and into Arkansas." I do not wish to be so close to my old life and to my family but if there is safe shelter than it is probably better to take it, everyone who sees us is a potential liablity. I nod at her and we go downstairs. I go to the innkeeper as though I am going to pay for our stay and as I did with the coachman I glamour her into forgetting that we were ever there. Then I make my way into the stable and take the best looking horse. I pull the Stackhouse girl up on to it and we ride off in the direction of Bon Temps.

We make it to her farmhouse with just an hour to spare before dawn. I set the horse free and break the boards on the back door of the house. Just as she said it would be, the place is utterly abandoned. I take her into the largest bedroom and again bind her to the bed, although this time I allow her to lie down on it instead of sitting at it's foot. When she is secured and gagged once more I take the cloak she had been wearing, head into the large closet and use it to plug up the space between the bottom of the door and the floor. Luck has been with us and I decide that tomorrow night I will enjoy the fruits of my incredible labor. The girl will finally be mine.


	17. Chapter 17

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Eric's POV

I am sitting in a tavern in the french quarter pretending to nurse a drink when I feel her. We have been sharing emotions back and forth between us since she returned to the palace and during that time I have felt a great deal. It is every bit as difficult as I knew it would be to always know when the Queen and others decide to enjoy her talents. But though it drives me nearly insane every time I feel it, the balm that is her love and devotion coming through afterwards makes what we have done worth it. Each time I send her all my strength and love and let her know that I am here with her, through everything, even if she cannot see me.

I know that when my weeks vacation for a job well done, as Appius had phrased it, is over she will have to experience the same thing. I am just about to pick dinner for the night, a much less enjoyable endevor than it used to be since I am no longer interested in fucking any of the women I feed from, when I feel another sudden jolt of fear from her. I prepare to attempt to help her through it when I realize that her distance from me is changing. I sit stock still in my seat for a few minutes trying to determine as best I can through her emotions what is happening. She is frightened, and moving, but there is also something else. She is...calling out to me for help. Without wasting another moment I leave the tavern, simply dropping my money on the table and head back to the house.

Everyone is at their evening lessons right now and as I pass the front part of the house to take the stairs down to my chamber I can hear that Appius is happily attending to his new male student. When I reach my chamber I pack two changes of clothes and a box containing what I hope will be unnecssary items. I make my way back upstairs and am preparing to leave the house when I see Pamela making her way down the stairs.

"Eric, what's wrong?" I look at my child, whom I have made for entirely different reasons than my master made me and I know that I can trust her implicitly.

"It's Sookie, she is in danger." Pamela gives me a questioning look for all of five seconds and then I see her put several things together. My child is uncommonly smart, much to smart for the life her human family wished to saddle her with.

"You have blood bonded with her?" She says it as though she cannot believe it, and I know that in some respects she probably can't. I have never had use for humans beyond food and sex and I have always taught Pamela to view them in the same way. For many years after I made her it was always just she and I alone, and if Appius had not called us to him it would no doubt be that way still.

"I love her," I say softly. Pamela still looks shocked but she nods to me and reaches out to take my face in her hand. She is several steps above me on the stairs and so I look up at her.

"Do what you must Master, I will await your call." I smile at her gently. She has never been anything to me but a loyal and loving child, but I will not bring her into my folly.

"No, I will not endanger you. I release you." I feel the moment my words sink in and I see tears forming in her eyes. I wonder for a moment if I have misjudged her happiness in this life, if she has not been waiting many years for those words to be said, but my fears are immediately allayed when she speaks her next words.

"You have no need to release me, I have never wanted to be anywhere but at your side." She gently kisses my cheek and then lets her hand drop. I catch it as it falls to her side and bring it to my lips in a final kiss and then I turn and leave the house, taking to the sky and following Sookie.

It takes only a few moments to orient myself once I am in the air and I realize that she has left the city, traveling north. I catch up to her about an hour before dawn just outside a small inn, and realize that she is with Compton. He has apparently kidnapped her. I watch at a distance as he glamors the driver of the carriage that brought them and gets them a room. There are far to many humans around for me to do anything tonight and it is too close to dawn. I make my way a half mile up the road to another inn and secure a room for the day. As I go to my rest I feel an immense wave of hope coming over me. This is our chance, this is what we have been waiting for.

When I open my eyes just after dusk the next night I feel that Sookie is still near. I make my way back to the inn where she and Compton are staying and to a window which is covered with a blanket. I hover just outside in a nearby tree and listen to what is going on inside. Sookie and Compton speak for a few minutes, she asks him to unbind her arms, I feel my anger rising at the thought of her bound and helpless with him. My anger only grows when I hear him bite into her neck, but before I can lose my mind altogether and rush into the room I hear Sookie's voice strong and confident telling him that they need to get farther away or they will be captured by the Queen's guards.

I feel Sookie reach out across our bond telegraphing her confidence, she knows I am here. I telegraph my pride to her, she has taken the opportunity that must have presented itself, and I could not be more happy. I feel her send me the same back and then I hear her telling Compton that they should go to Bon Temps where her farmhouse is boarded and empty. I smile to myself as I realize that she is giving me a quite place from which to deal with him.

Compton agrees to put his other hungers on hold for the moment and they leave the inn fifteen minutes later by horse. I follow from the sky pacing the horse even though I could go faster. I am not familiar with this particular part of Louisanna and I don't wish to misjudge my destination and then need to back track.

It is nearly dawn again when Compton and Sookie reach her farmhouse. I watch as Compton binds her to the bed and hides himself in the closet. Again I feel my anger, but this will be the last time he does so. There is a wood shed behind Sookie's house, like the rest of the house it looks as though it hasn't been touched in years. I hide myself inside and prepare to let dawn take me. I am far older than Compton and when I rise tomorrow night he will still be dead. I will make sure that he does not lay another hand or fang on Sookie again.

My eyes come open again the next night and it is with purpose. I open the box I brought from my chamber and take out a wooden stake. Leaving the rest of the box inside the shed I make my way into the house through the back door that Compton so graciously broke open. I make my way through the house and find Sookie tied to the bed and gagged in the largest bedroom. When her eyes settle on me I see relief flood through them. I motion for her to be silent and I wait. Not five minutes later Compton opens the door of the closet and I have him pinned to the wall. He is still an infant and his strength is no match for mine. I see him reach for a knife he has concealed in his jacket pocket but the stake in my hand is in him before he has the knife fully out. Once Compton is no more than ash in front of me I release Sookie from the bed.

"Eric!" She says throwing her arms around me and holding me close. I fold her into my embrace and hold her close.

"What happened?" I ask her. I hear Sookie laugh and the sound is filled with relief and joy.

"Mr. Compton killed his maker, and kidnapped me. He kept saying that I was his by rights and that he was free now and would have what belonged to him." She looks down at the floor for a split second and then looks back up at me with determination in her eyes. "I had to make split second desicion and I chose to allow him to take me. I knew that you would come for me." I take her face in my hands and kiss her gently. When we break apart I smile down at her.

"I am so proud of you, little one. You did right, this is our chance." Sookie looks up at me, I see happiness there but also a bit of worry.

"I was afraid you would be mad at me." She says softly. I kiss her gently again and let her feel how much the opposite my emotions are.

"I did not want you to throw you life away needlessly, as you would have with the letter. I know how much you love your Gran, and if she had recieved the letter Appius would have killed her and anyone she asked for help as well. This was what I wanted you not to do, to endanger yourself when there could be no gain from it. No, I am nothing but proud of you Sookie, we have a chance now, we have the upper hand, but we must leave here now." She nods her head and we walk out the door.

"Were will we go?" She asks. I frown at her. I have allowed my muddled feelings for my maker to sway me for the last time. He had killed me, taken me away from my small children who needed me more than ever after their mother's death. He had hurt me and forced himself on me over and over again, and now he held my life in his hands again. He had allowed me to live long enough to meet this woman I love so much, but he cared nothing for what I desired, or the pain that he was inflicting on us both. In his home, surrounded by other vampires, and with my own child there I could not have struck at him, but It seems that fate has intervened, and I will not go back or let Sookie be taken back.

"There is a harbor city not far from here, Shreveport. We will go there." I say as we exit the house. I retrive my bag and the box that I brought from the house in New Orleans, and take Sookie into my arms.

"Are we going to book passage on a boat?" She asks as she comes up flush against me, her head resting gently on my chest.

"Eventually, but first we must wait for my maker." With that I put my arms around her and take to the sky. Sookie lets out a surprised yelp and throws her arms around my neck. As dire as our situation is I cannot help but laugh at her face. She looks utterly speechless.

"You can fly!" She says. I just laugh at her a little more and nod my head.

"Being a vampire has many advantages." I say kissing the top of her head. I see something pass fleetingly across her face and sense from our bond that she is thinking hard about something, that she is ...keeping something from me. Just as I am about to question her she opens her mouth to speak.

"I need to tell you something." I am relieved that she has chosen to tell me instead of trying to convince me that I did not feel what I did, or lying to me. I attempt to stay calm so that she will tell me without fear. "I kept it from you because at the time I didn't feel that I owed you or anyone else an explanation, I've been keeping this from everyone my whole life." I nod again and she takes a deep breath and closes her eyes tightly. "I can read minds." She says it so quickly that at first I think that I have misheard her, but then she cracks an eye open and looks at me. I set us down in a field and just stare at her.

"You have been reading my mind this entire time?" Sookie shakes her head sadly.

"No Eric, I can't read your mind or any other vampire. Only humans, but would it matter if I could?" She asks me sadly. I realize all of the sudden that she thinks that I will be angry with her or think she is somehow defective. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is only one more proof of how extraordinary, how special a woman she is. I put my hand to her face, tilting her head up to mine so she will not doubt my sencerity.

"It would matter, but not in the way you think. I would love you no matter what, if you could read every thought in my head than you would only know with that much more certainty that this is true. But knowing that you can't read my mind or any other vampires only means that you are safer. If you coud have it would have changed nothing but how far we would need to flee and how protected you would need to be. I am glad that you told me little one." She nods at me relieved and wraps her arms back around me. I take to the sky again and we make it to the little city of Shreveport without incident. We find a small inn in a seedier section of town. I have picked this place because it is very densley populated. The more people around us the less options Appius will have in terms of how he deals with us. Once we have a room I take Sookie to it, cover the window and light the candle on the small table. Taking Sookie's hand, I bring her over to the bed. I sit her on one side of it, me on the other, and the box I brought with me in between us. Sookie looks at me questioningly as I open the box and show her the contents.

"When I do not return to my duties tomorrow night Appius will begin to call me. With each time I do not respond his call will become stronger. I am hoping that if I can hold him off long enough he will believe me to be in trouble and come here to find me." Sookie looks frightened at this but I try to calm her as best as I can. I now begin to show her the things in the box. "Besides daylight a vampire has two weaknesses. Silver weakens us and slows us down," I gesture to the long lengths of silver chain in the box. "And as you saw with the unfortuante Mr. Compton, a wooden stake will end us." Sookie concentrates hard on what I am showing her.

"What will we do?" She asks. I take the last thing out of the box, a small vial of silver liquid.

"When Appius comes and discovers that I am not in danger he will assume that any threat to him will come from me. My maker is over eighteen hundred years old and very strong. Physically I am not a match for him, and you even less of one. I believe that he will disregard you almost entirely and assume I am the danger. This is silver liquid," I hold the vial up for her to inspect. She gives me a puzzled look. "Litterally small shavings of silver floating in liquid." She takes the vial and rolls it in her hands. "When he discovers us it will be up to you uncork the vial and throw it in his face, aim for the eyes. Appius is incredibly strong, but if I can have the advantage over him for even a moment I believe that I can stake him. " Sookie shudders but I see the resolve in her eyes. She is smart enough to know that freedom from this world would not come without a price. I see in her eyes now that she is willing to pay it.

"And what are these for?" She asks gesturing to the chains. "Should I try to bind him once he is blind?" I shake my head at her.

"No, those are for me." She looks at me utterly bewildered. "I believe that my maker's first call will be gentle and that I can resist it. But as I told you, when I do not comply and return to him it will get stronger, more painful, more difficult to ignore. The second I feel his first call you will need to bind me in silver each night to the bed to make sure that I cannot respond." Sookie looks horrified and I can see tears forming in her eyes. I do the only thing that I can to make them stop.

"The choice is yours Sookie. I can return you to the palace and we can go on living as we have been living, or we can take the chance for freedom. But this is what must happen if you want it. We cannot leave my maker alive, or he will never let us go." I look deep into her eyes and see the question there, and the mere fact that she cares enough to ask it convinces me yet again that I have been right to love her.

"What about you Eric? This isn't my decision alone. Is this what you want? Is this what you are willing to give up? Your home, your saftey, are you truly prepared to kill your maker for me? These are things I cannot ask you to do. I promised you that I would never put you in danger again, the choice is yours too." I close the box and put it aside bringing her into my arms.

"To have you with me, to be free to live my life as I choose. Yes, I am willing to fight and I am willing to kill for it. I have never loved another as I love you Sookie. I cannot return to the life I lead before you came into it, and I cannot bare one more day of you with the Queen. Will you fight beside me?" I both feel and see the resolve over take her.

"Yes," She says simply taking my head in her hands and pulling me close to her. Within minutes both of our clothes have disappeared and I have her flush against me. I feel Sookie push me down on the bed and rise over me. My little one is mine once more and she places kisses along my eyes, my cheeks, my jaw. Her little hands caress my chest and stomach, and then I feel her mouth descend to lick my nipples and her hands go down to take a hold of my member and I am utterly lost in the bliss her touch and kiss brings. She looks up at me the whole time that her golden head descends lower and lower on my body and I see her smile filled with love and lust just as she takes my cock in her mouth and tastes me.

We have only been seperated for a week but it feels as though it has been an eternity. Our bond is filled with many emotions, but overarching them all is our joy at being together once more and I let it flood through me. Sookie brings me right to the edge with her sweet mouth and her soft hands but I stop her just before I fall over. I bring her face back up to mine and kiss her with all the passion I posses as I flip us around and bring her underneath me.

I see her face flush with lust as I begin to roam her body as she did mine. I let my hands wander to her sweet little sex as my mouth tastes again the lush softness of her breasts. Sookie cries out, bringing her hand down to hold my head to her, pushing her nipple farther into my mouth, and bucking her hips to bring herself closer to my hand. It isn't long before she reaches her peak and I happily let her fall of the cliff watching the whole time as she does. When she has recovered I lay down behind her and pull her back to my chest. Without another word I thrust foward and sheath myself in her hot, tight, wetness. We both groan out our pleasure as I begin to move within her. Each time I surge forward she bucks back against me and soon we are both crying out with pleasure.

Nothing has ever felt so wonderful and I feel myself truly filling with hope that from this moment on we will be together. There will be no more fears that to need her, to desire her as I do is a mistake. No more reminders that she is not mine to love. From this moment on we are each others and I will let NO ONE take her away from me again.


	18. Chapter 18

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Sookie's POV

I cry out as I feel him enter me from behind. My heart is litterally overflowing with joy and my body is screaming with pleasure. We are together and we are so close to freedom. I could never have known the night that I wrote that letter to my Gran just how much would have to be sacrificed to win my freedom, and I didn't realize even then that should I chance it it would not be to go back to my former life, but now as I feel Eric holding me, loving me, bringing me again to the height of pleasure I have only felt with him I know that anything I have to do I will.

As we move together I feel Eric's hand come up from behind me and start to caress my nub. I lean my head back onto his shoulder and cry out. I feel his other hand come up from my hip and take hold of my breast, twisting and pinching my nipple with just the perfect amount of pressure. I bring my hand back and take hold of his perfect behind guiding him to take me harder and then I beg him.

"Eric, please, please bite me." We are no one's but each other's now and I revel in the right to ask him for the pleasure I desire. But even sweeter than asking is feeling him give it to me. Eric nuzzles my neck moving the hair away from it even as he thrusts into me with abandon and then I feel it, the exquisite sharp pain of his fangs sinking into my neck. I cry out again and repeat his name over and over again as he drinks from me.

The sweet sting is just what I needed and I fall over the edge and my pleasure brings his. A moment later he releases my neck and I hear him cry out as he spills inside of me.

When it's done we both lie there still joined and try to regain conciousness. Eric holds me close his face burried in the spot on my neck he just drank from and kisses it repeatedly.

"You are mine now, you will never belong to another!" He says with such emotion that all I can do is wrap my arms around his where he holds me and nod.

"Yes, always, and you are mine." I say breathlessly.

"Always," he says. It's the last thing I hear before I fall off into sleep.

When I awake the next morning I feel Eric's arms still around me and I give soft sigh of contentment. I turn in his arms and look at him. I have never seen him during his daytime rest before and I am struck by just how much he looks like he is sleeping. Were it not for the fact that he is not breathing I would be tempted to nudge him awake. Instead I plant soft kiss on his still lips and rise.

Somehow knowing it's daytime makes me feel just that little bit safer. I light the candle by the bed, pour some water into the basin by the dresser and proceed to bathe myself for the first time in days. It feels heavenly and I realize that I am not just washing off the dirt and grime of three days travel but also the grime of my captivity. The only thing that I want from these past months is the man lying so still and beautiful in the bed and I will do whatever is necessary for us to keep each other.

After I have washed and dressed I notice a note and some money on the small table next to the candle. I read it quickly and smile. Eric has left me money to go down and eat something.

I kiss him once again and make my way downstairs after securly locking the room behind me. The innkeeper and his wife are happy to bring me something to eat, remarking the whole time that I look as though I haven't eaten in days. That statement is very close to the truth and so I accept the food and the chatter gratefully.

Once my meal is done I head back upstairs and wait for the sun to set. It was fairly late in the day when I woke and I do not end up having to wait long. I feel Eric stirring after only about an hour and when his eyes open the first thing they do is fall on me. I smile wide and fling myself at my still naked vampire.

Eric catches me and holds me close to him, devoring my neck with kisses and inhaling my scent as though he were a man dying of thirst in the desert and I am a cool pool of water. I laugh as his hands make their way under my dress and he rolls me underneath him. Before I can even think he has lowered his head between my thighs and ripped away the fabric of my underclothes. I cry out as I feel his tongue taste me from one end of my sex to the other and then take my nub between his teeth.

Eric's hands hold my thighs open as he feasts on me and I both feel and hear the sounds of pleasure that he's making against me. I sigh as I feel one hand leave my thigh and begin to play with my entrance. A moment later two of his fingers penetrate me and I begin to cry out in earnest, bucking my hips and riding his fingers as his tongue reaches out and flicks my clit.

"Eric, Eric, Eric," I call out into the room and my hands descend into his hair holding him to me. I feel him chuckle against my sex and then just as I'm about to hit my peak he turns his head and bites my thigh.

I come crying out to him and I feel his answering cry as he drinks my blood. When he is done he licks the wound and crawls up to kiss me, his lips still bloody. I'm so overtaken with my desire for him, even after my release, that I hold his head to mine and lick every last drop of my blood from his mouth.

Eric groans as though nothing has ever pleased him more and in one swift motion thrusts into me. The force of his entry causes me to throw my head back and Eric again lowers his to kiss my neck and chest. When he hits the top of my dress I feel him force the fabric down and pull my breasts out of my corset. I cry out as I feel him take one in his mouth and the other in his hand. He tortures my nipples with his teeth and fingers and I wrap my legs around his waist urging him to thrust deeper into me.

Just as we are both about the climax again Eric lifts his head from my breasts and brings his wrist to his mouth. I hear the sound of him ripping it open and before I can ask him what he is doing he holds it up to my mouth. Without a word between us I take his wrist in both my hands and begin to drink as Eric lowers his head to my breast once more and bites down.

The second we begin to drink together I feel the world slip away from me. The feeling of us being completely joined is so intense and I loose myself in it for a moment. When I come to again, Eric is lying ontop of me kissing me softly.

"What happened?" I ask him shyly. He looks down at me and smiles tenderly.

"I'm not sure, but I think we both blacked out for a moment." We both look at each other in amazement and then Eric helps me out of my dress before it can sustain any further damage.

We spend the rest of the night making love completely undisturbed, but just as Eric predicted the next night he feels the first call from his master.

The call is not intense but I can feel the moment when it happens and we both double over in shock. Once Eric has his body under his own control again he goes over to the bed and pulls the wooden box out from underneath.

He hands it to me and I know what he expects me to do. WIthout another word he lays down on the bed and I take the silver chains from the box to bind his hands and feet to the bed. I did not know what to expect but when I bind his first wrist and see the pain he is in and the smoke rising from his flesh I hesitate. Surely there must be another way!

Eric looks at me with eyes cold as steel and commands me to finish. I swallow hard looking for the courage within me to to do what I must, and though I hate to do it I bind him. The smell of Eric's burning skin is horribe and as soon as it's done I climb in bed with him and kiss his lips and pet his chest trying to do anything to distract him from the pain.

Eric asks me to talk to him and I find myself telling him all sorts of inane stories about my life growing up, about my brother, about my Gran. Anything to keep his mind from his sizzling wrists and ankles. When dawn takes him under I unwind the chains and give his body a chance to heal. I wander downstairs briefly and again eat and then I go back and lay down next to him and try to sleep.

Just before sundown I bind Eric again and when he wakes I can see the pain in his eyes. I hold out my wrist to give him blood, and then lay down beside him and tell him more of my life.

It goes on and on like this for four nights. Our talks and Eric's pain only puncutated by the times when Appius calls him. Through our bond I can feel that Eric is right, with each call Appius's will grows stronger and the effects more painful until Eric is crying out both with the pain of the silver chaining him to the bed and of the call pulling him from within.

On the fifth night Eric wakes with a hard look in his eyes.

"Appius is coming." He says simply. I release him from the silver chains and hold my wrist out to him. Eric takes only a little blood but it is enough for the burns on his wrists and ankles to heal.

Eric tells me that Appius can fly as well and that we should expect him sometime tonight. We wait in tense silence as the hours roll by and then just after midnight we both feel him enter the inn.

Eric hands me the bottle of liquid silver and conceals in his back pocket the stake he intends to use. Then he positions us as though we have been kissing hoping to make Appius believe anything but that we are concealing weapons. As we hear his foot steps on the stairs Eric's eyes take on a look of worry.

"Sookie," he whispers to me, "if this does not work, run. Don't look back, and do not try to help me, just run. I will hold him off for as long as I can."

The door flies open and there he stands sword in hand. He chuckles when he sees us together.

"I had hoped it wasn't true, but I suppose that I knew all along you had the girl. Eric how could you be so foolish?" His words sound concerened but I can feel that Eric knows he is not. What little Eric has told me of his maker has led me to believe that it is more than just humans he cares nothing about. Eric now attempts to convince Appius that all he wants from him is to be given his freedom.

"Master please. I love her. Release me and let us go. No one need ever know that I have taken her. If you tell the Queen that I am dead she will believe you." Eric pleads convincingly, putting every ounce of the anguish we have both felt in the last two months into his voice. Appius seems to believe Eric and laughs coldly in his face.

"Do you honestly think I would have anything to do with this pathetic scheme of yours. You are my creature Eric, I have brought you to this life to serve me and I will not let my desires be subverted by a little human whore." Appius now looks at me and bares his fangs. I know that whatever happens next it is imperative that we look defeated. If Appius were to feel any resistance he might order Eric to do something drastic. Eric and I both paint hopeless looks on our faces and I see Appius smile.

"Eric you will come with me now, we will leave this little one to her Majesty's guards, she has no chance of illuding them on her own." He commands. At that moment Eric parts from my side to follow his maker and I make my move. I flip the lid off the bottle of liquid silver concealed by the folds of my dress and throw it in Appius's face. Appius screams, dropping the sword and automatically lifting his hands to his eyes.

Eric rears back taking hold of the stake, but just as he is about to plunge it into Appius chest Appius flails his hands blindly and hits me with such force that I fly against the wall, hitting my back against a wall sconce. I hear a sickening cracking sound and realize that it came from me just before the whole world goes black.

When I open my eyes again everything seems different, but I cannot tell why. I feel more than see that everything around me is swaying and my eyes fall on a rounded window that has been completely covered with a heavy blanket.

I hear voices very near me, they are whispering but I can hear them as clearly as if they are shouting. When they realize that I am awake the whispering stops and I feel a hand take mine.

"Sookie, can you hear me?" I feel a tension in me release as I realize that the voice is Eric's, but it sounds different than before, more melodious, more nuanced. Slowly, slowly I turn to him and I realize that the though the whole room is lit by only a single candle I can see everything.

"Eric, what happened?" I ask, and the sound of my own voice startles me as well. Eric looks at me with such love but I can feel through our bond that he is anxious, scared to tell me what has happened. For one terrible second I fear that we failed and that Appius has us somewhere and is holding us prisoner.

"Appius is dead. You distraction was enough for me to kill him, but just before I sunk the stake into him he hit you hard and you went flying into the wall." I nod gingerly, I remember that part well. "He broke your back. You were dying." I nod again sensing Eric's anguish.

"Then how am I still alive?" I ask not quite understanding. "Did you give me your blood?" Eric nods his head but I can feel that there is more.

"I did lover, but it would not have been enough just to give you my blood, you were fading to fast. I have brought you over." I look at him not quite understanding. "You are a vampire Sookie, like me now." I sit straight up not realizing how fast the motion actual is and almost fall over. Eric catches me easily and holds me tight. I can't process what he has told me just yet. Instead I notice something. Where we are is completely silent.

"Eric where are we?" Eric looks from me to the other person in the room, who I now realize is Pamela, and then back at me.

"We are on a ship Lover, bound for my homeland. After I killed Appius, Pamela found us. She was just ahead of her Majesty's guards. We were able to fight off the advance scouting party and find a ship to take us away. That was three nights ago. Now that you have risen and we are away from Louisanna we should not have to worry any longer. Sophie-Anne has no authority outside of Louisanna's boarders and even if she did, no law is above the right of a maker to his child." Eric looks at me expectantly hoping for any sign that I understand that he did what he had to to keep us together. But all I can focus on is the silence.

"You're saying that there are many other people on this ship?" Eric looks at me as though he is worried that my turning has robbed me of my faculites, but all I can do is become more and more excited.

"Lover, I don't understand. Yes we are on board a very large ship. There are perhaps a hundred other people on board with us, why?" I take his hand in mine and kiss it over and over again.

"Eric, I can't hear anything. If I closed my eyes right now I would believe I was competely alone. Somehow your turning me has taken away my telepathy!" I throw my arms around Eric and hug him tightly, a little too tightly apparently because Eric coughs just a little letting me know that I'm squeezing him to hard.

"Then you are not angry with me?" I look up at him and I really try to imagine what this new life will be like for me. I will never see the sun again, I will never see my Gran again. I am a creature that must now feed on the blood of others. I'm not sure that it is a life I would have chosen for myself if I had had the choice. But I am also alive when I would have been dead, my telepathy, my curse is gone, and most importantly Eric and I are together and free and he has granted me the opportunity to live forever, with him! I kiss him softly on the lips, paying special attention to be gentle.

"I am alive, and I am with you, how could I ever be angry about that. I love you!" Eric's face lights up as though it's christmas and he pulls me to him kissing me passionately, so much so that after just a moment I feel my new teeth break through the skin of my gums. I pull back shocked and Eric and Pamela both laugh at me, and then Eric goes back to kissing me. I know this new life will take adjusting to, but right now all I feel is overwhelming relief at our freedom and complete love for my maker.


	19. Chapter 19

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Pam's POV, Louisanna (present day)

As I look out over the crowds in the bar tonight I smile to myself. Life, existence, has been uncommonly quite of late, but I feel sure that I should enjoy the lull while it lasts. Things are never quiet around Eric and Sookie for long.

It was with a happy heart that I answered my maker's call just after the great revelation. I had been on my own for the last fifty years and had missed him greatly. I was also glad to see my sister whose company has never in the last hundred and sixty years been boring.

Eric wished to start a new businsess venture now that vampires were "out of the coffin" as humans so quaintly termed it, and I was more than happy to be a part of whatever he wished to do. As I remember back to our journey aboard that ship, just days after Sookie's making, I could not have anticipated how much entertainment she would bring to my life.

We made the journey back to Eric's homeland safely and settled ourselves in a small city that was near where Eric believed his villiage to have been all those centuries ago. We layed low there for the first two years hoping that Sophie-Anne would grow bored with looking for us and move on to waste her time with other things. We were only attacked once, but between the three of us we managed to repell them.

Once we were sure that no one else was coming for us we were prepared to move on, but strange things began to happen. Entirely by accident Sookie realized that the telepathy that she thought had been "cured" by her turning had in fact been transformed. Where before, she told us, the voices of humans had simply flooded her head with no ability for her to control or stop them now she had to desire to hear another person, but when she did she could hear anyone human or supernatural. It was the beginning of many powerful abilities that would manifest themselves over the next years.

Unable to account for any of what was happening Sookie chose to search out her Grandmother hoping for answers. When we found her she was lying near death, and to ill to realize that her long lost grandaughter was different than she had been when she disappeared. The old woman was simply happy to have what she said was her last prayer answered, to see Sookie once more. It took only a little persuasion for the woman to confess everything. Sookie's abilites and the unique taste that had orinally drawn her into our world were no coincidence, but the result of Sookie's being part fae.

That coupled with the ancient blood that Eric had given her made her into something else entirely, something both fae and vampire and completely frightening when necessary. Between Sookie's unique abilities and Eric's repuation as an ancient and formidable warrior it was not long before Sophie-Anne was waving the flag of truce and vying along with others to have them as her alies.

They could have chosen to live anywhere but Sookie felt the call to return to the home she had missed for so long, and Eric, rarely able to say no to her, choose to settle in Louisanna and accept Sophie-Anne's offer to make him one of her Sherriffs.

In all we have lived quite happily for vampires, never known to be an overly happy lot, and I have come and gone as the whim takes me, both enjoying the freedom that Eric has given me without hesitation and returning to them when my heart calls me back. At first I worried that I would be jealous of Sookie. In all my maker's time on this planet I had been his only child, until she came into our world. But as I began to see her not as the little human she had been, but the vampire she had become I came to realize that we were all three of us quite perfect together.

As for Eric and Sookie. I would never have thought it possible for a maker and child to stay together continuously for a hundred and sixty years, but they have. Perhaps it was the blood bond they shared so briefly before her turning or merely the knowledge that their partner is utterly unique and irreplaceable, but the love they found so unexpectedly has remained and grown only stronger over the decades that have passed.

I have been so lost in my reminicence that I do not even notice someone has come up to me until I feel the cool breath in my ear.

"I was thinking Ty bears," Sookie whispers conspiritorily into my ear. I turn to her with an eyebrow raised trying not to smile, smiling vampires are bad for business.

"Ty bears?" I ask her. She nods.

"Yeah you remember those little bears stuffed with beanie material that used to be all the rage in the 90's."

"I seem to remember something about that," I say suddenly knowing where she's going with this particular conversation.

"It just so happens that there is some lady in Wisconsin who's selling about a 150 of them on E-bay. I just won the auction and I was wondering if you would do me the honor of helping me hot glue them?" I go from trying not to laugh to trying to keep the horrified look off of my face.

"What are planning to hot glue them too?" Sookie laughs again and gestures for me to follow her. I can only smile as I do. Truly she makes sure nothing is ever dull for long.


End file.
